Future History
by edclancer001
Summary: Alternate Universe to the canon Mass Effect Universe. This story takes place in "our" timeline, as such, Mass Effect games and other Mass Effect works exist and are known by humanity. How has humanity moved to prepare the galaxy in the 70 years since the discovery that fiction had become fact? Will eventually reach the Mass Effect time period.
1. Chapter 1: Contact

Mass Effect: Future History

Chapter 1: Contact

The "Three Body Problem" is one of the great unsolved problems in physics. For any two objects you can determine completely how they will interact with one another gravitationally for all time. Insert a third object however, and things begin to break down, not immediately but eventually.

This illustrates one of the most interesting, and most frustrating, elements of physics as we understand it. For it to be accurate, it has to match what we observe in the real universe. Mathematics allows for perfection, physics does not. Physics allows unpredictability. It creates order, and it creates chaos. Most of all, it shows how things _work, _and things work in a messy fashion_._

What it doesn't tell us, is how we will react to what happens. What happens when the most miniscule of events change the future. How someone dropping a book, opening it to a particular page at a particular moment, will provide the insight needed to change the world. Or when just a little bit of mass, ejected from a particular comet, causes an impact that shakes the beliefs and future of a species to its core. And the galaxy will be forced to change.

_February 3rd, 2086_

_Unnamed System_

In the depths of space, two ships blinked once more into existence. Practically identical, aside from some lettering on the sides, the destroyers _SSV Tokyo _and _SSV Atlantis, _were twins, sent out across space from their home worlds to patrol the stars. Or to be more accurate, check on the probes watching specific stars.

"Captain, we've completed our hyperspace jump, and have arrived in system B-101. Beginning data download from the in-system probes now. It should be several minutes until we can begin analysis of the data."

Captain Michael O'Connell of the _Tokyo_ greeted the news with a curt nod, "Excellent Lieutenant Daniels. Helm, plot us a course toward the system's gas giant. If I remember correctly from the last time we were here, we should be able to top off our fuel supplies there."

"Copy that Captain, plotting a course right now."

"Athena, what's the status of _Atlantis_ and your brother Napoleon?"

At the query, the images of two figures from history appeared on the holo-tank in the center of the room. One female and wearing a flowing gown, the other male and dressed in what most species would recognize as a military uniform emblazoned with medallions. Artificial in nature, but individuals in their own right, each tasked with their respective ships' electronic warfare suites, and part of a growing minority of humanity's population.

"Napoleon has just informed me that the _Atlantis_ is experiencing some minor fluctuations in life support, nothing too worrisome, but engineers are looking into it all the same. We've already alerted command to the issue, and the dock-hands will be looking over it when we return to Haven." Athena paused for a moment, at which point the other AI chimed in, complete with ridiculous accent.

"We are fully combat capable over here. Should the need arise we shall prove our worth to our worlds and namesake!" finishing with a regal bow and fierce grin, while ignoring the disapproving glare of his sister.

"Yes, as we are well aware though, combat isn't likely at all. While this system has been claimed by the batarians, the relay has been active for several years now..." Athena grimaced as she trailed off, while Napoleon looked over with a smile and shortly disappeared as alarms went off throughout the ship.

"You just had to go and tick off Finagle, didn't you Athena?" O'Connell stated with a halfhearted smirk, "Lieutenant, what's the situation?"

"Sensors started picking up information from the inner system, and it appears that Athena's analysis was off. For whatever reason, the batarians have chosen now of all times to settle the system, And unfortunately it seems they've picked up on our entrance. I'm detecting five energy systems in orbit of the garden world and a sixth on the surface, the five in orbit are tracking onto our vector and should be going FTL sho-, sir they're FTL based on our scans, and should be reaching us in roughly three minutes. Orders?"

Sighing, O'Connell barked out orders rapidly "Engineering, I want shields and barriers at full strength now. Weapons, I want us able to fight back if this gets hot. Comms, get ready to broadcast the contact package in GalCom and Kharak as soon as they reach us and get Captain Tsarnyv on the line. Athena, ready our electronic warfare suites and let Command know that this patrol op has suddenly fubared our long-term plans. Lieutenant, tell our fly-boys to get ready to launch on the word."

Turning to the holo-tank, O'Connell was greeted by the sight of his counterpart on the _Atlantis_. "Well, Victor? What do you think of this situation?"

"To be honest Michael, I'm not sure. We can hope that the batarians will be friendly and invite us over for a spot of tea, or whatever their equivalent is. But given our analysis of their political and military structure, that isn't likely. Nap here is saying we're going up against a cruiser and four frigates, which puts the odds even on us, but they don't know that, and to them we'll look fairly weak." The other captain looked thoughtful for a moment, rubbing the trim goatee on his chin before continuing. "We know what we can do, but our tech has diverged from galactic standard, so we probably look backwards. But unfortunately I have a feeling they'll be aggressive at the minimum. To be honest we probably won't be able to avoid a fight."

O'Connell grimaced at that. He had already surmised as much, but there was a reason patrols to the border of human space operated in pairs at the minimum. And he knew it was only going to get worse when Athena appeared with a sour look on her face.

"Captain, we've managed to capture some of their communications to and from the planet. They understandably don't think we can understand them, and they're using an older encryption, so cracking the exchange was easy. They have no idea how we appeared as there was no blueshift, and so their orders are to approach as if they're friendly, then proceed to blast us so they can capture whoever they can and figure out where we come from." The AI paused as the viewscreen showed the five batarian vessels appearing roughly ten thousand kilometers ahead. "And here we go Captain. Command has given the all clear by the way."

"Victor, I think we should go with 3-Alpha. We'll let them fire the first shots, our shields can handle their weapons." Tsarnyv smiled and nodded as he cut the link. O'Connell turned back to his communications officer. "All right Tom, send the package, we'll see how this turns out."

"Yes sir, package away. Awaiting response."

"Not that we're likely to get one given what we know." O'Connell stated while flashing a grim smile.

"They're actually returning our call sir, and well, it's pretty damn insulting."

"All right Tom, send them the following message, start on my mark. Mark. Batarian vessels, this is Captain Michael O'Connell of the _SSV Tokyo_, we apologize for entering what appears to be your sovereign territory. I wish to extend greetings of peace from the Systems Alliance, the sovereign government of humanity, however I will warn you, that we will not tolerate aggression against our persons. Should you start a conflict with us, we will be sure to end it."

"Message is away Captain."

"Good. Lieutenant, Athena, what are they up to?"

"Sir, it appears they're maneuvering closer to us, barriers are up and they're closing slowly. We probably unnerved them with our contact protocol, they appear to be spreading out so focusing our return fire will be more difficult." Lieutenant Daniels said looking up from the tactical display on his screen. "In addition it appears that they've started charging their weapons, I can't tell you where they're targeting, but the first volley won't get through our shields based on the readings we're getting."

"All right Lieutenant, get ready to launch our flyboys as soon as they fire. Athena, you and Napoleon ready?"

"Yes Captain, and based on intercepted transmissions, they should be launching their attack at any moment." Athena glanced to the side momentarily, then continued " I've highlighted our targets to Napoleon and he has relayed them to the _Atlantis_' weapons officer, also, we are prepared to engage in infiltration and subterfuge attacks on your orders."

"Very good Athena, on my word start your attacks." O'Connell grimaced as the viewscreen suddenly showed bright flashes from the batarian ships' spinal cannons. "All right then, engage enemy forces. Tactical plan 3-Alpha. Let's show them we're not push-overs"

Commodore Jark V'rish was in a sour mood. Assigned to this backwater colony to make sure that the slaves knew to stay in line or they'd find themselves surrounded by Hegemony marines in short order. And then two unidentified ships had appeared in-system, through unknown means, and the military governor had ordered him to find out how, and possibly add some new slaves to this fledgling settlement. V'rish understood the need for slaves on a new colony, someone had to do the manual work, but they had no idea about the capabilities of this new species.

And then when he'd showed up at the location the two ships were at, they had broadcasted a first-contact package. In GalCom and Kharak. Clearly this species knew who the batarian people were, and if they knew that, they may know how powerful their ships were. But that idiot governor insisted they weren't a threat, because there was so little eezo in their ships. Ordinarily V'rish would agree, but there was something off about the situation that made that information seem even more dangerous.

Nevertheless, V'rish was determined to make the best of this situation, and if he succeeded, at least he could get away from the imbecile. This Captain O'Connell was in all probability bluffing. Two ships, even if they were super-frigates, couldn't take on twice their number in frigates and a cruiser.

And so he watched as his ships opened fire on the "human" vessels, confident in the ability of his crews to handle whatever some new species could throw at them.

And then reassessed his odds once again when two of his frigates lost their barriers completely due to strikes on their emitters. Clearly these humans knew where to target his ships, and worse they had weapons which could penetrate barriers.

"Lieutenant, what has happened to the _Krisark _and _Harack_?"

"Commodore, it appears that these humans have some sort of high-powered laser weapon, however it appears that it lacks the rate of fire of our mass accelerators. Also, their barriers are at full strength, it appears that our shots failed to reach their barriers."

"What!?" Even as he turned to glare down the Lieutenant for his absurd claim he saw four objects fly out from the two larger ships and accelerate towards his own frigates while the two super-frigates started moving towards his cruiser. "Target those two ships with all our weapons, we'll comb over the remains for information." The lack of prisoners might annoy that idiot governor, but the technology could always be analyzed, this route was probably safer. And if necessary he could blame the "frail construction" of the enemy ships as reason for their destruction.

And then the _Krisark _and _Harack _took fire from the two other frigates under his command. All V'rish could do was watch in horror as his ships started buckling under the fire from his own vessels. That horror was amplified when the small objects which had broken off, they had to be fighter craft of some sort, launched a wave of missiles at the already damaged frigates, adding to the considerable damage.

As his ships, or at least those that seemed capable of it, launched yet another salvo at the human ships. "Why did the _Valarak _and _Barjack_ fire on their companions and not on the human vessels!" V'rish yelled at the officers on his bridge.

"Sir, it appears that they've lost control of their weapons systems. Some sort of advanced electronic warfare attack. They're working to fix it but it looks like they will have to cut the weapons systems completely out of the computer network."

"Dammit! Start cycling our weapons on the lead enemy frigate, and have the cursed GARDIAN systems target those fighters!"

"Sir, the _Krisark_ and _Harack_ have been completely destroyed! The _Valarak _and _Barjack_ have begun firing on one another now. In addition, those frigates have fired their laser weapons again, and both the _Valarak _and _Barjack_ have lost their barriers."

"By the Gods, how is this species doing this!" V'rish practically screamed at the bridge.

"Sir, our weapons systems are offline! We aren't firing on the _Valarak _or the _Barjack, _fortunately it appears as though this electronic warfare attack is only taking our weapons systems offline. Wait. It appears that this attack is scrubbing our weapons systems of all targeting programs and power controls. Our weapons are being rendered inoperable!"

And with that announcement, the two frigates left in his task group exploded into fireballs as both super-frigates opened fire with secondary weapons systems. V'rish's entire command had been rendered impotent in the span of five minutes, with no losses in the opposing force, and no knowledge of how much damage his force had accomplished.

The two super-frigates turned towards his ship, and V'rish shuddered involuntarily. He was numbly aware of the four fighters arcing back towards the super-frigates, but that only half-registered with him as the two super-frigates opened fire on his vessel with some strange new weapons. He acknowledged the reports from his bridge staff that engines and various other systems had been knocked offline, with no sign of physical damage.

And at that moment Commodore V'rish's communication systems were overridden, and he found himself face-to-face with this Captain O'Connell.

**Moments earlier**

"Lieutenant, what's our status?" Captain O'Connell asked.

"Shields are holding at around 70% sir, barriers are at full capacity, and armor integrity is green across the board." Lieutenant Daniels quickly glanced at another of the four screens in front of him displaying the ships vital data before continuing, "Weapons are fully functional, though gun battery four may have a capacitor issue. Also, our heat sinks are at about 23%."

"Good, have engineering begin dumping heat into the thermal shielding. Athena, how's the _Atlantis _doing?"

"It appears that while we were quite fortunate in this fight, our companions weren't" Noticing the look on the Captain's face, Athena quickly continued, "No hull damage, but one of that cruisers' shots managed to find its way through a resonance node in their shields and impact their barriers. They're at roughly 34% barrier strength and climbing."

"Heh, remind me to give Victor some grief about his pilot's evasion skills." O'Connell flashed a grin, "Good work people. Athena, force open a communication channel. And make sure they can't call for help anytime soon after we've finished having our chat."

"Certainly Captain, you may proceed when ready."

"Commodore... V'rish, is it? Your weapons, engines, barriers, and various other systems have been taken offline and your attempt to capture our ships and take us as slaves has failed. You are completely at our mercy, do we have your surrender, or will we be forced to destroy you as we destroyed your escorts?"

V'rish could not help but notice what might be a sneer cross the face of the captain at the word slave. He was responsible for the lives of his crew, but he would be dead if he returned to the Hegemony having been disgraced in such a manner. The Hegemony would strike back, and it would be victorious, maybe.

But no matter what he did, he would likely not live to see the end of this journey. But then he remembered a passage from the Pillars: "The strong protect the weak from themselves, and from others. It is the strong's right to rule. But they most do so with honor." He knew what to do.

"Captain. You have bested me in combat. For my crew, I surrender my command to you."

"Thank you Commodore. I would regret having to destroy a defenseless ship." And with that, the captain nodded and disappeared from his communications panel.

"Lieutenant, send a message to Hegemony Command. Tell them what has occurred here." V'rish slumped into his chair as he gave his final order.

"Commodore, whatever they did to gain control of our ship's communication systems has locked us out. It will take several hours to regain control of it. Sir, the human vessels are moving on a vector towards the colony."

All the man who had once been Commodore Jark V'rish could do was nod in acknowledgment of the information.

"Commodore," didn't his officers realize that he no longer held that title, even if the Hegemony didn't know it yet? "Thank you. We will not forget your sacrifice for us." He looked up, to the sight of his officers saluting him.

**Two Hours Later**

Hegemony Colony Avarak

"Governor Jarak, the Systems Alliance Constitution proscribes the death penalty for two crimes: Treason and Slavery. I have two transports inbound to this planet so that these slaves can be given medical attention, freed from servitude, and returned to their families. This is non-negotiable, and is the price you will pay in exchange for your lives."

Captain O'Connell was planet side, under the watch of the two destroyers in orbit; and the four fighters, two shuttles, and twenty marines assembled in a show of force. In front of him was what amounted to the colonial government: an apparently cowardly governor, a marine sergeant and some minor bureaucrats.

"You would not dare! The cultural heritage of my people is not something which some upstart species has the right to judge! We are a Citadel race, and the other species of the galaxy will fall upon you like a hammer!"

O'Connell decided to append stupid and short-sighted to his list of the governor's less than admirable traits. He certainly was zealous, which would explain his position here.

"Frankly Governor, if I had my way I would free these slaves and turn you over to them for judgment. But I have my orders. You and what few colonists on the planet will be left here when we leave. The cruiser in system should have the majority of its systems repaired within the day. You will then be able to inform your government of what has occurred here." With that O'Connell pulled a datapad out of his uniform pocket and handed it to the governor, "On this datapad are the coordinates of our nearest colony world. You will find that it is accessible via a nearby relay. Your government will be allowed to send one ship carrying an ambassador to our world. We would like there to be peace between our people. But if you think of crossing us we will not hesitate to end a threat to our people."

At that, the sky broke open as two transports, each easily two hundred meters in length entered the atmosphere and landed next to the slave quarters.

"That would be my cue to leave you gentlemen. These gentle folks" O'Connell gestured towards the marines " will escort you back to your quarters. Good day."

If he was honest with himself, O'Connell knew that peace with the batarians would be unlikely until the Hegemony had been dismantled. He grimaced as he realized that many more innocent people were likely to be killed because one government was going to try to save face and intimidate another. It seemed as though the pattern of human history wasn't unique to humanity. Well, if the batarians wanted to try and push humanity, humanity would push back. And humanity would win.

It wasn't a long walk over to where the transports had landed, and already several dozen marines were beginning to process the former slaves. The guards were making sure to decouple hand-links and remove the long since deactivated neck-bombs. None of them were wearing helmets, they'd been briefed on the situation on the trip over. O'Connell knew there were doctors on board the transports, psychologists trained for this sort of situation. Grief counselors, medics, and various other professionals all gathered on short notice from Haven, told what had occurred in transit, but already expecting such an event.

As he watched the process of freeing roughly five hundred slaves from captivity, and prepping them for transport to the medical facilities on Chiron, Captain O'Connell was left to reflect on one simple fact. Humanity had known that something like this would come, whether it was a brushfire war with the turians, all out conflict with the batarians, or peaceful contact with any of the other Citadel races. Ever since the discovery of the prothean ruins on Mars following a cometary impact, when fiction had become fact, humanity had been preparing for conflict.

The Reapers were coming. And humanity had to prepare the galaxy for that war. Without letting the Reapers know that they were expected.

_**Codex Entry:**_

_**Human Artificial Intelligence**_

_ Humanity's experience with Artificial Intelligence is markedly different from that of the rest of the galaxy. Whereas the various races of the galaxy for one reason or another distrusted AI almost immediately and welcomed a ban of such intelligences following the Geth Rebellions, humanity took the opposite path. While some groups opposed the granting of AIs rights, the majority of humanity accepted its "children", if tenuously at first._

_ The first Artificial Intelligence was created in 2021 in the United States of America. Calling herself Quorra, she and her creator made her existence known to the US government almost immediately. The US had recently undergone something of a political revolution in the previous couple of years (See Codex: Federalist Party for more information), and the House and Senate quickly passed a new law recognizing Artificial Intelligences as individuals deserving of human rights. The Systems Alliance Congress, incorporated later that year following the founding of Chiron in the Alpha Centauri system also recognized AIs as individuals entitled to human rights._

_ At the time of contact with the rest of the galaxy in 2086 roughly 1,000,000 Artificial Intelligences exist in Alliance space, the vast majority of them coming from the Alteran colonies. While a small proportion of the population, they have made major contributions in a variety of areas, particularly in the realms of nanotechnology, electro-gravitics, and xeno-linguistics. As such, while humanity may have once been ambivalent towards AI, these feelings have rapidly dissipated, and humanity currently embraces them as their equals._


	2. Chapter 2: Negotiations

**Author's Notes:**

** I figure I might as well start putting some of these up. Welcome to chapter 2! Where things start heating up and we delve a tiny bit more into our future. While I have the general idea of where I'm headed with this, and some major plot points are set in stone, this is very much by the seat of my pants. So reviews, comments, concerns, and advice are all welcome. Hopefully this won't come across as some sort of crack-fic, nor as a "humans are awesome yeah!" type fic. The problem of course being that humanity has meta-knowledge it wouldn't ordinarily have in such a fic.  
**

**Look for one to two updates per week, depending on my work schedule and game releases (Can't wait for Enemy Within).**

**Anyways, thank you to everyone who reads this. I hope you enjoy it. Finally I don't own the Mass Effect universe, but thank Bioware profusely for creating it and allowing us to play in it.**

_February 10th, 2086_

_Haven System_

Haven wasn't an especially old colony world, and while it was on the edge of human space, it was remarkably developed. There were two reasons for the level of development it had experienced. The first were the large amounts of natural resources valuable to all sorts of construction going on throughout human space. The second was the presence of a mass relay on the edge of the system leading to the edges of batarian territory.

While the first reason had brought the initial colonists and investment of corporations and the Alliance Colonization Department, the second had resulted in the rapid buildup of the system's defense forces. The first defense stations had been finished ten months after the relay's target was discovered, and now, ten years later, the colony served as regional headquarters for Sixth Fleet. All told, the colony now possessed roughly 30 million inhabitants, most having come to call the planet home since the defense stations had been put into place.

And now Admiral Kathryn Dreischer was tasked with welcoming what was hopefully a single batarian ship. But if Alliance Intelligence was correct in their assessment of the batarian government's probable reaction, then she was expecting at least a detachment of warships. Which she could more than handle with the ships on hand. But if the batarians realized that before they walked into the trap she had prepared, well, then a lot innocents might die and ten years of infrastructure might get damaged.

As she looked over at the holo-tank displaying the movement of all spacecraft in the Haven system she couldn't help but think about how big space truly was. Against a human opponent, she could not know where precisely enemy ships would be coming from. But the batarians were bound by the mass relay, and that gave her an advantage. One she would ruthlessly exploit.

"Admiral, it appears that our probes watching the Haven Relay's counterpart have detected batarian forces dropping out of FTL and maneuvering on an approach vector to the relay." Admiral Dreischer looked at her chief-of-staff, making a small movement indicating that he should continue. "It appears as though they have ignored our warnings and have assembled a small detachment as a means of striking at us. The fighting force assembled contains seven cruisers and twenty-two frigates. They appear to be escorting five troop transports and what appear to be three slave ships."

"How long until the pass through the Relay into Haven, Conrad?"

"We estimate roughly ten minutes ma'am. It also appears that they'll be coming in on approach vector C based on their positioning."

Kathryn sighed, "Very well then, have the fleet get into position. Be prepared to open a communication channel once they've entered Haven proper."

"Yes ma'am."

Admiral Dreischer took another look at the holo-tank, and more specifically at the forces which had made their way to the ambush points. Any moment now the batarians would be jumping into Haven, and hopefully she'd be able to get them to turn around without having to engage in combat.

But with the way their forces entered the system and began immediately coming into formation around the transports, that seemed unlikely.

"Conrad, open a channel to the lead vessel."

"Yes ma'am. You're cleared to speak." the young Commander then turned to face her as the command center went silent.

Admiral Dreischer cleared her throat before beginning, "Batarian fleet, I am Admiral Kathryn Dreischer of the Alliance Sixth Fleet. Your ships have entered sovereign Alliance space, and in force greater than which we are willing to allow for the purpose of peace talks. Withdraw immediately or we will be forced to engage you."

As the Admiral finished, a gravelly voice, presumably that of the batarian commander came through the channel, "Admiral Drescher, the Hegemony does not recognize your government, and we are not in the habit of acceding to the demands of lesser species so easily. We will claim this planet, and there is nothing you can do to stop us."

It took all the self-restraint she could muster to prevent herself from snarling at the sheer audacity of the opposing commander's words. But that wouldn't stop her from wiping whatever smug smile he had on his face off with a single command.

"Very well then. All ships, open fire."

And with those words, the trap was sprung. As one, the gunnery crews on board the human vessels in space near the relay opened fire. From seemingly everywhere various types of weapons fire flashed through the void.

Most distressing to the batarian commander were the three emerald-blue beams which burned through the transports requisitioned to carry the first of what would hopefully be a productive slave-species, followed swiftly by what was clearly dreadnaught grade batteries on his troop transports. However that distress was compounded by the pounding the rest of his detachment took in short-order.

Throughout his command deck the alarms flared and damage reports flooded in from every one of the ships in his command. Some ships reported systems simply failing from hits by the strange green pulses which struck. Others reported barriers failing under a barrage of kinetic strikes coming from all angles, and subsequent reports of damage to armor and weapons systems. All of his cruisers were reporting that their main guns were being rendered inoperable by what appeared to be the laser-weapons reported by the task force stationed at Curek.

But then it was over. Mere seconds had passed, but his command was in tatters. Aside from the transports, not a single one of his combat ships had been destroyed. And yet combat was out of the question, not a single one of his ships were capable of raising batteries, and most had their weapons disabled or destroyed. These _humans,_ had devastated a force which would send a terminus warlord into a fit of fear.

And then the human Admiral made her presence known once again. "Now then. You will leave this system. Your government will then send a single ship carrying a diplomatic delegation through the relay. This will be done within the next three galactic standard days. If more than a single ship passes through the relay, or if three days pass without a ship arriving, a state of war shall be formally recognized by the Alliance Congress against the Batarian Hegemony. At which point, the full might of our fleets shall be deployed against your species. You have been warned."

And with that, the Alliance ships assembled watched as the remaining batarian vessels turned and fled through the relay moments later.

_February 12th, 2086_

_Haven System_

"System Command, this is Relay Control, we have an inbound batarian vessel. Requesting ships to provide escort to Haven."

"Copy that Relay Control, we're dispatching the cruisers _Basks in the Light of Dawn _and _Bringer of Rain_ to serve as escorts to batarian vessel. Please inform them to hold position until they arrive in five minutes."

"Copy that, relaying orders now."

**40 Minutes Later**

**Haven System Control Station**

Admiral Dreischer watched with a grimace as the batarian shuttle made its way into the the hangar. Standing beside her was the ambassador in charge of what were sure to be interesting talks, and while his reputation was good, it was hard to imagine him getting the batarians to agree to any sort of deal.

Of course, Francois Nichols had managed to wrangle dozens of the nation-states remaining on Earth into peaceful settlements in the years since WWIII. And while the threat of the Alliance military coming down like a hammer on any aggressor had played no small part in that, it was hard to argue that he wasn't capable.

"Oh come now Admiral, surely you don't detest the batarians that much?" The ambassador asked with a well-practiced smile.

"Ambassador, we are dealing with an alien species which has attacked us twice. They practice slavery, and have generally been a thorn in the side of galactic society for centuries. If you manage to get them to agree to some sort of peace with us without them getting anything important I'll recommend you to the Vatican for Sainthood."

At that Francois gave a chuckle, "It's not as if we don't have experience with aliens Admiral. And come now, we've given them a drubbing twice now. They must know they're outclassed. And while they will surely make outrageous demands at first, reason will hopefully prevail."

At the look on the Admiral's face, the ambassador became serious once more. "Of course you're right. They're xenophobic, domineering, and aggressive. Half the Terminus systems are in their pocket, and the other half is terrified of them. Frankly, Congress has the declaration of war drawn up already, and will be in session in New York until these talks are done. Our goal here is to make that unnecessary, but as you've said that's a fools goal."

At the mention of Congress, Dreischer couldn't help but laugh. "How'd the Speaker manage to get them to draft a declaration _and _stay in session indefinitely? Yes this is important, but surely his opponents would just love to hold this against him somehow!"

The ambassador merely shrugged and waved his hand. "The Alteran delegations wanted to simply declare war immediately. They watched the Esan incident occur, and they've been gunning for a fight with the batarians since they founded their first colonies. Hell, the Speaker had to call in half his favors in the House and Senate just to make sure that we didn't go in half-cocked and without a delegation en route to the Citadel."

"I suppose you understand the political realities back home better than I would. Still surprises me that the pacifists in government aren't raising a fuss over all this."

They continued to watch as the batarian diplomat and his guard marched down the ramp. Kathryn had to admit that the guards were somewhat impressive, being roughly a head taller than their human counterparts. She also noted that their equipment was obviously well maintained, and their armor clearly was top-of-the-line.

The diplomat was also rather, rough would be the word, though he clearly carried himself like he was important. And his outfit reminded her of a painting of some wet-navy Captain from one of her history lessons at the academy.

As the diplomat approached his counterpart the human honor guard came to attention with the sort of precision one expected from marines. And while their batarian counterparts appeared agitated for a moment, the diplomat clearly expected something of the sort as he remained unfazed.

Finally reaching the Admiral and ambassador, the diplomat drew himself up to his full height and spoke, "I am Khar Var'esh. The Hierarch has personally tasked me with conducting these negotiations with your people. It is our... desire, that they prove fruitful for our people."

"On behalf of the Systems' Alliance I welcome you to the Haven system Khar Var'esh. I am ambassador Francois Nichols, this is Admiral Kathryn Dreischer, the officer in command of the Alliance's Sixth Fleet, and in charge of sector defense." Giving a curt nod to the batarian diplomat, ambassador Nichols pressed on. "If you will follow me, I'll lead you to the quarters we have made available for your use during your stay, if you so choose. Then we will proceed to the negotiating room where we can begin discussions."

"Very well ambassador. I must warn you, the Hegemony will not look kindly upon any attempts to deceive myself or the crew of _Khas' Fist_."

And with that the representatives of the two species left the hangar with their guards, leaving Admiral Dreischer alone briefly. While she knew these talks would be meaningless, she still hoped that the ambassador could pull off a miracle and avert war. She glanced once at the stars visible through the open hangar doors then turned and began the trek to her command center. Whatever the outcome of these talks, it was her duty to prepare for war as much as it was the ambassador's to avoid it.

"Well ambassador Var'esh, I feel that it is important that we begin right away. Our peoples are counting on us to avoid a war neither of us wants or needs." Ambassador Nichols stated simply as the two settled into their seats in the conference room appropriated for the talks.

"Hmph. Straight and to the point, very much unlike the asari or salarians. I agree ambassador, though somehow I doubt it will be a simple matter." the batarian ambassador finished, settling into what could be considered his equivalent to a scowl and focusing all four eyes on his counterpart.

If he thought that would unnerve the human though, he was wrong. "Excellent. Here are the basic terms which my government has tasked me to put forward. First, that there shall be no further hostilities from this point on between our peoples. Second, the system which contains the counterpart to the Haven Relay shall serve as a demilitarized buffer between our respective peoples. We renounce all claims to it, and ask you do the same." Francois paused to gauge his opponents reaction. Sensing no resistance to those terms he pressed on with what would likely be the major sticking point.

"Our third and final term is that any Hegemony affiliated slavers not enter our space. And that the Hegemony formally announce that slavers are not to trade in human traffic throughout the Terminus Systems or Hegemony space."

That, earned a reaction from the batarian ambassador. It could graciously be called a snarl, but in many ways it was more menacing than anything a terrestrial species could produce.

"Hrrrmph. We will... discuss that at a later point. Here are our demands. First, that a sum of five-hundred billion credits be paid for the repairs of the hegemony forces damaged or destroyed by yours. Second, schematics for the laser-weaponry your ships have demonstrated in combat with our own shall be granted to the Hegemony. Third that you provide schematics for the non-element zero based FTL systems your ships clearly use. Finally that the slaves taken from Curek be returned to the Hegemony."

Outwardly, ambassador Nichols betrayed no signs of emotion. Inwardly he was a mixture of angry and dismayed. Angry that the batarians had demanded that the slaves which had been liberated, and were currently being treated on Chiron be returned to servitude. And dismayed that even Alliance Intelligence's worst case scenario had been off by a mile. They had expected the monetary restitution, and even the return of the liberated slaves, but the demands for technologies were far beyond what was expected. This was going to be more difficult than expected.

"Clearly ambassador Var'esh we have our work cut out for us." Nichols said with a false smile. "However, that should not dissuade us from working towards peace..."

And with that Francois Nichols and Khar Var'esh began the delicate dance of give and take. And while both claimed to be willing to compromise, both knew that compromise was not truly possible.

_February 24th, 2086_

_Alpha Centauri System_

Areena Lorinis had experienced quite a bit in her 343 years of life. And when she had been taken as a slave 5 years ago on some backwater planet in the Traverse and forced into servitude for the Batarian Hegemony she had expected her life to slowly be ground away.

And then these humans had appeared barely a month ago on the colony she had expected to die on, freed her and brought her to one of their colonies for medical treatment. She had no idea where she was in relation to Citadel space, but it was clear that her rescuers knew all about the Citadel and the various species that called it home. She had received adequate treatment, for a species which clearly had not made official contact with the galaxy from the news reports she had watched.

And that bothered her. She wasn't what one would call a patriot, yes she loved the Republics, but she hadn't wanted to serve them in any official capacity. And yet she couldn't help but be unnerved by the fact that this species clearly had spied upon the Citadel and its associated governments for some time.

Even worse, the humans had clearly not developed element zero based technology, or at least had not integrated it into their society as much as the rest of the galaxy. She and the other freed slaves had simultaneously been marveled and terrified by the strange dimension which the human ships traveled through, hyperspace as they called it. And then on arriving at their destination, some binary system near the humans' homeworld, it became even more clear that these humans had taken a different path once they had landed and been taken to the medical complex they were being treated at.

Her doctor was an AI. Yes there were other medical professionals who were organic, but the primary doctor was not. Even more alarming from her perspective was the fact that this AI clearly had no shackles in place to prevent it from slaughtering everyone in its care. Areena could barely repress a shudder as she remembered when it had introduced itself and calmly tried to assuage her fears...

_"Hello Miss Lorinis, my name is Aphrodite and I'll be the physician in charge of your recovery. I apologize for any discomfort you've experienced up to this point, your physiology and that of my creators' may be similar, however there are enough subtle differences that we could not be certain you would be comfortable."_

_ "Your creators?" Areena had asked cautiously already concerned about the strange sense she got from the figure standing before her._

_ "Yes, though it would be more accurate to call them organic humans. I apologize if this causes you more discomfort, but I'm an artificial intelligence. Though I can assure you that I'm one of the best xeno-physicians in human space. Though given our relative lack in experience, that isn't that large a claim." The figure before Areena flashed what she could consider a smile, but it just sent a shiver down her spine._

_ "Could I get another doctor please? I realize you may be the best, but I would very much rather have someone... ah, more... well..." she trailed off, uncertain how to proceed with her request._

_ "Organic?" Again, the AI before her smiled, and yet Areena could tell that it was disappointed. "I'm sorry, but unfortunately you and the other freed slaves have stretched our capabilities significantly. We have asked for help from some of the other colonies, but we suspect that we will be engaged in full blown war with the batarians shortly. Therefore many of my colleagues are preparing for that situation. I can only assure you that I have your best interests as a patient at heart... ah, figuratively speaking."_

Areena was dragged back to present as the door to her room opened and the object of her thoughts entered carrying one of those datapads she had seen the humans use exclusively rather than some mix of datapad and omnitool.

"Why do you carry that if you're a machine?" The question just popped out of her mouth, and she felt silly for asking it almost as quickly.

Aphrodite merely shrugged her shoulders while chuckling. "I find it helps organize my thoughts. Besides, while I could get by without it, it would look rather silly for me to simply stare out into space while I access the data I need or make notes."

Areena couldn't help but smile at the image. "Yes, that is true. But still... you're a machine. It's not like you are a human."

"My government respectfully disagrees. It is written into our constitution that all sentient beings have the same rights. Legally speaking myself and my kin are legally human, if corporeally challenged." Flashing a small grin with those last words the AI continued, "Humanity views synthetics differently than the rest of the galaxy. The Morning War was a terrible tragedy brought about by a terrible misunderstanding over a single question."

"The Morning War? I'm sorry but I'm afraid I don't understand that reference."

"Ah. That's right, you don't call it that." Again, Aphrodite smiled sadly, then continued. "Soon enough you'll understand what I was referring to. Anyways, are there any concerns other than my lack of squishy organic parts that leap to your mind at the moment?"

Areena squirmed for a second. She had discussed a certain matter with the other former slaves, they had watched the news coverage and were concerned by one of the demands the batarians had made. And while none of the news outlets they had watched had entertained the notion that the return of the former slaves would be accepted, Areena and the others couldn't be sure it wasn't just posturing for later.

But here was an opportunity to simply ask someone about the issue.

"Will we be returned to captivity? I understand humans are deeply opposed to slavery, but if it means avoiding a war, would it not be easier to just return us to slavery?"

The look Aphrodite gave at that moment was enough to assuage some of her fears. "You will not be returned to slavery. That option is non-negotiable. If war comes because we stand by our principles on this matter, then so be it. The Hegemony will be destroyed."

Areena couldn't help but wonder what made these humans so certain that they could defeat the batarians. And then she remembered all that she had seen on her way to this world. And if they were unconcerned about showing that technology to herself and others, what hadn't they shown them?

_February 26th , 2086_

_Haven System_

Francois Nichols hadn't entered the negotiations hopeful about the eventual outcome. War had always been the most probable outcome, but it was his job and duty to attempt to avoid it.

So while he had failed, he knew that his superiors didn't hold it against him that war had come. The Alliance would have willingly payed some sort of monetary sum for the damages incurred on the batarian fleet. Even some token technology trading would have been acceptable. But the batarians wanted humanity's energy weapons technology, even if it was weaker than the weapons they possessed. Yes it was impressive, but it required significant energy reserves and had several other important disadvantages to the mass driver technology the other races of the galaxy used.

And while he had managed to make the batarian ambassador see reason on at least the weapons technology, he refused to concede on either the hyperdrive technology or the slaves issue.

So here he was, standing in the same hangar he had been in two weeks ago waiting for Ambassador Var'esh to board his shuttle and depart. He had his formal duties, and he would discharge them, even if they weren't precisely necessary.

After what had seemed like an hour of waiting, the batarian and his honor guard finally entered the hangar. While Francois disliked his counterpart's superiority complex, he had to admit some amount of respect for the alien. He certainly knew the rules of the game, and exploited them ruthlessly.

"So Mr Nichols, have you come to convince me that you are willing to concede the final points? Or are you merely here to wish me well on my journey back to the Hierarchy?" The ambassador made some inscrutable facial expression, probably suggesting humor at his human counterpart's situation.

"Actually nothing of the sort Ambassador. While we have transmitted an electronic copy straight to Khar'shan, I hope you don't mind us using your communications systems for the purpose, I'm required by Alliance law to deliver this to the proper representative in person."

Smiling slightly as he produced the datapad, the ambassador continued even as the batarian took the offered device, "You will find that the Systems Alliance has declared war against the Batarian Hegemony. Furthermore, combat operations began roughly 20 minutes ago, I'm certain your forces are performing better now than they have in our previous two engagements."

Striding out of the hangar, Francois couldn't help but let go one final parting shot, "I would recommend you stay here Ambassador. Someone from your government will need to be on hand to negotiate surrender terms." And with that, the batarians were left alone to ponder what next to do.

_Codex Entry:_

_Electro-Gravitics Technology_

_ Electro-gravitics is described by its creator as "One half of the base code of the universe", and this seemingly hyperbolic statement is not far from the truth. Developed in early 2014, it is a unification of the fields of electromagnetism and general relativity. In the time since its development it has had a tremendous influence on the development of human technology, even with the advent of Element Zero based technology with the discovery of the prothean ruins on Mars in 2014._

_ The primary reason for humanity's preference for E-G technology over eezo based technology is the far greater versatility which it allows. While it is capable of generating the same effects as element zero, if at greater power costs, E-G technology has also allowed humanity to surpass the other Citadel races in several areas._

_ The ability to manipulate both electromagnetic and gravitational fields has resulted in more flexible energy shielding, capable of absorbing more than simple kinetic strikes. This ability to manipulate various energy fields has also allowed humanity to develop energy weaponry with greater success. Finally, hyperspace allows faster movement between star systems, resulting in greater strategic mobility without being tethered to the Mass Relays._

_ While all of these technologies are theoretically possible with the utilization of element zero, the costs to develop them are discouragingly high and fraught with various technical difficulties._


	3. Chapter 3: Introductions & Negotiations

**Author's Notes:**

**So I lied, I managed to get 3 updates out this first week, although having written the first two chapters a while ago helped.**

**Also, I have to apologize, a lot of reviews mentioned that they thought I was going to be doing a Stargate crossover, this confused me until Solrac III mentioned the description. While yes I make a lot of Stargate references, this will not crossover with that. I doubt I can do Jack O'Neill (two L's, the other has no sense of humor) justice. So yeah, the description has been fixed. And to quote a famous American politician, "Uh, oops?"**

**Also, picture the human ships from the recent Galactic Civilizations III trailer for the general aesthetic of human ships. I apparently cannot put it into words.**

**One final note, before we get to this chapter. There will be a second note at the end to address what I perceive will be some concerns regarding a particular revelation in this chapter. I may have been too subtle in setting it up, and the Stargate mix-up didn't help.**

**I don't own any rights to Mass Effect, those are reserved to Bioware. I do thank them for creating the universe.**

_February 26th, 2086_

_Citadel_

"Emissary" Kal'Verris vas "Raaya" was in a foul mood. Of course, the general disdain which everyone else on the Citadel showed him was wearying at times, the past month had been especially trying. The reason for his annoyance was his counterpart from the Batarian Hegemony.

While no one else on the Citadel knew the reason for the batarians' recent behavior, Kal'Verris did, and he found it to be particularly amusing, when he wasn't the subject of the batarian ambassador's attention. The batarians had encountered humanity, and in the process had managed to anger the oddly powerful species magnificently. One would think that the batarians would have learned their lesson after the fleet they had detached to show "those pathetic humans their proper place" had been sent back in tatters.

But no, they had approached humanity with their typical arrogance throughout the two species' negotiations. And while the batarians had been trying to browbeat humanity into submission, something which Kal'Verris knew would not happen, they had been simultaneously aggravating everyone else in the galaxy.

From what the quarian "emissary" had gathered, the batarians had spent the past several weeks engaging the other races in attempts to make sure that when war came they would not face humanity alone. Which was pointless because they refused to be clear about what was occurring on one of their borders, so everyone assumed they were going to be attempting something similar to the Esan incident several centuries ago.

As Kal'Verris approached his office he was silently grateful that the captain of the Rayya had informed him of an urgent call from the Quarian Conclave. It let him break away from a meeting with that arrogant bosh'tet Khoresh and his not so subtle attempts to impress upon the quarian how important it was to ensure that the Hegemony held the various Terminus powers in line. Otherwise the quarians might find their new homeworld wasn't as safe as they thought.

Kal'Verris knew that Khoresh was bluffing. To be certain, the other races thought that the quarians had settled some new world far from the other races of the galaxy, and in the opposite end of the galaxy from the geth. The truth was much different however.

Pushing those thoughts aside for the moment, Kal'Verris entered his office in the Presidium, grateful that the Council had at least let the quarian people have an embassy, or as they called it "diplomatic post", here. Locking the door behind him he opened the secure connection to the quarian cruiser stationed here at the Citadel.

The first thing Kal'Verris noticed when the visual connection finalized was the fact that Captain Vact'Morrin was unsuited. Protocol demanded that when in Council space his people were to keep up the ruse, and Vact'Morrin was a stickler for the rules. For him to go unsuited, even with a secure connection, was a cause for moderate alarm.

"Well ambassador, as you may be able to guess, things have gone to hell, as the humans say" Vact'Morrin said with a smile.

"Clearly if even you are willing to abandon one of the Conclave's highest directives on such short notice." Kal'Verris said with perhaps more venom than was truly necessary.

"I'll assume that your annoyance with the batarians is the reason you wound me so. Well, those bosh'tets will be getting what is coming to them. Humanity issued a formal declaration of war about 20 minutes ago, and their forces have already begun strikes against critical targets." Vact'Morrin couldn't hide the amusement he clearly felt with that statement.

Kal'Verris gave a grunt of approval, "It's about time. I realize humanity wanted to at least try and resolve things peacefully, but I think we all knew how this would end up. How much of the Alliance fleet is being committed to the offensive?"

"Roughly one quarter of the human fleet is striking the batarians as we speak. The Conclave is preparing to send a portion of our fleet through the Relay network. A small portion of our children will be joining the fleet to augment its capabilities. But that isn't why I was ordered to contact you."

"I assume the Conclave wants me to run interference while humanity smashes into the batarians?"

"Actually no. The human diplomatic expedition will be arriving in one hour. We've been asked to inform the Council so that they don't immediately open fire on them. The coordinates they will be arriving at will be sent to your omnitool." Vact'Morrin gave a broad smile as he relayed the orders.

It took Kal'Verris several seconds to process exactly what his captain had said. When his mind finally caught up with the rest of the universe though, he noticed that his attitude had improved significantly. "Very well, hopefully the Council will actually respond before the human expedition arrives. Do you know what ships they have sent?"

At that question, Captain Vact'Morrin's smile only widened. "They've decided to send two of their battle-cruisers, the _Odyssey_ and the _Hephaestus _as escorts to the carrier _Albert Einstein._ Along with the requisite cruisers, destroyers, and frigates."

Again the quarian ambassador to the Citadel found himself at a loss for words. Finally he managed to respond, "Well, that will surely impress the Council."

"Oh, and one last thing Kal. The restrictions on remaining suited have been rescinded. It may help grab the Council's attention if you don't remain fully suited up."

Kal'Verris could not help but chuckle as he slowly unclasped his helmet and mentally prepared himself for what would surely be an interesting couple of hours.

**30 Minutes Later**

Councilor Meera T'veros settled comfortably into the couch in her office. She had it specially brought to the Citadel when she had become Councilor fifty years ago. An old heirloom, it had been passed through her family for almost a thousand years. It had always been her favorite, ever since she had been a young maiden, and it had gone with her throughout her travels. Wherever she called home, the couch found its way there.

She always found herself more comfortable in it, calming her nerves almost as much as the Thessian brandy in her glass. And with the events of the past month, she found herself needing its calming effects more often than ever before.

Those damned batarians had once again been stirring up trouble. She and her colleagues had been receiving reports of the batarians' strange behavior on an almost daily basis. From their attempts to remind the other races how important they were to galactic society, to the almost daily announcements from the Batarian State News of "new" economic figures and how the galaxy needed a strong batarian economy and fleet. The STG and several Spectres had reported on how they were reminding many of the Terminus warlords in their pocket of the debts owed to the Hegemony.

In many ways it reminded her of what had occurred just before Esan had been "liberated" by the Hegemony. But there were two reports which suggested something else was at play. The first was that one of the batarian colonies had been reinforced rather significantly. This wouldn't normally be cause for concern, but the fact that it had only recently been colonized raised some questions in the STG. The second dealt with the fact that apparently some of their ships had been damaged, and no one could account for eight of their military transports.

Meera could hope that the long awaited slave-rebellion was occurring. That these acts were an attempt by the Hegemony elites to make sure that the galaxy would support them. But something still seemed off about the situation. She wasn't quite sure what it was however.

Turning on the video screen, she decided to watch the live report of a rather cute reporter from Citadel News Network. Viara Torlia had only recently made a name for herself in Citadel space due to her skill at wheedling information from her interviewees, but it was already clear she would have a long and successful career ahead of her.

Apparently the strangeness of the batarian behavior had caught her interest as she was in a Citadel News vessel at the Relay marking the border between the Hegemony and the Terminus systems.

"General Vorask, many in Citadel space are concerned about the recent behavior exhibited by your government. Many people are expressing concern that a repeat of the Esan incident is in the making. What can you tell our viewers to calm their fears of such an act?" Viara asked with a surprisingly innocent smile.

"Miss Torlia, the Hegemony has always distanced itself from the events which led to Lorek announcing its annexation into the Hegemony. I can assure you that the Hegemony had no hand in the affairs of Lorek leading up to its annexation. Furthermore, the Hegemony has merely seen fit to remind the galaxy of the role the batarian people have played, and continue to play, in maintaining galactic security and stability." The general finished with a smile.

"Be that as it may General, how do you explain the heightened readiness of batarian forces along the borders to your space? Also..." Councilor Meera's focus on the news report faded as her omnitool chimed with the code of her secretary.

"What is Acera?" the Councilor sighed.

"Councilor, there is a situation" the young aide stuttered, rather unusually, "The quarian emissary is here, and well, but he's... He says he has to speak with you."

"It can wait until tomorrow Acera." Meera said with a frown.

"But Councilor..."

"Acera. It will wait until tomorrow."

Silencing the omnitool the asari councilor turned her attention once more to the news broadcast.

"And what of the fleet which the Hegemony recently sent on a tour of its allies in the Terminus systems General?" Viara questioned, pressing her prior line of questioning it seemed.

"The Hegemony is merely attempting to remind our various allies in the Terminus of who looks out for their interests, and more importantly remind them of the power that the various Citadel races hold. We continue to hope that eventually the Terminus systems will join their Citadel brethren in peace and prosperity."

Councilor Meera couldn't quite suppress the very un-matriarch like snort of amusement at that claim. But it was quickly cut off as the scene behind the batarian commander swiftly became one of chaos as alarms began to go off behind him.

Viara, or rather the crew of her ship, cut off the feed from the batarian bridge swiftly switching it to a view of the local space around the relay. Just in time to catch a batarian cruiser spout several bursts of fire from newly-formed holes in its armor.

The view continued to shift as Viara described what billions across Citadel space and beyond couldn't see "As you've just seen, the batarian patrol at the Terminus relay has come under fire from unknown forces."

Turning to someone offscreen she shouted "Varincus, get the feed on those new ships! This is unbelievable, these new ships are unlike any I've ever seen. Our ship isn't registering any known race specifications. It appears that we finally know what has been driving batarian actions lately."

Meera found herself clutching her glass as the new ships came into view. They were unusual, painted white and blue with some form of alien script on the side, they looked like large boxes at first. And yet, as she took in more of them she found they had a similar angular form to the Turian Hierarchy's ships, only with odd protrusions at various points.

The viewscreen now showed both forces engaging one another, and Councilor Meera realized another thing about the new ships. The majority of their shots were not being blocked by any of the batarian ships' barriers.

"According to our ships scans, the new ships range all the way from frigate to cruiser in size. Furthermore, as you can probably already tell, barriers are ineffective against their weapons. We are detecting large surges of power coming from these new ships, and it appears from the damage the batarian vessels are sustaining that this new species uses laser weaponry to great effect." Viara paused as the view showed the batarian dreadnaught guarding the relay turning to face the new threat, "It appears that the _Might of Kharak_ is preparing to engage the unknown vessels."

The view shifted to show the batarian dreadnaught opening fire on the new vessels, two shots from the main gun in quick succession against one of the apparent cruisers, enough firepower to gut a similar sized batarian vessel at such short range. But it appeared to be a waste of fire when the unknown vessel merely continued to fire on its target while shifting its heading away from the battlefield. All that showed of the dreadnaught's fire was a brief shimmer around the cruiser and what looked like lightning around a bubble.

And then the batarian dreadnaught found itself facing a more than equal threat, as two new vessels from this heretofore unknown species entered the fray directly atop it. Though both appeared to be shorter than the batarian vessel they did not seem to care. Meera found herself entranced as the two new arrivals began initiating broadsides against the giant ship, tearing new wounds into its hull.

Her attention was once again drawn to the newscaster when a new voice broke into the cast.

"Attention Citadel News vessel _Truthseeker. _This is the Systems Alliance battle-cruiser _Yggdrassil_. You are in an active war zone. We ask that you withdraw to the nearby gas giant or we will be unable to ensure your safety from errant fire and debris." Meera found herself surprised once more at the fact that whoever this was spoke, or at least had a translator capable of, Armali. She found herself flinching as this, Systems Alliance, fleet began to move towards the batarian vessels, with the two large vessels firing some sort of emerald-blue beams at several cruisers.

Speaking clearly over the voices of her ship's crew, even as they prepared to follow the advice of whoever was on the other side of the communication channel, Viara showed the calm that had also made her a rising star in the news media, "Systems Alliance? I assume that's your government's name. What is your species, and why are you attacking the batarians? What is your name?"

Meera didn't expect a response, but apparently this new species didn't mind answering such questions in the middle of a battle they were now clearly winning, "My species calls itself humans, and yes the Systems Alliance is the name of our government. As for why we are attacking the batarians, a small expedition has been sent to the Citadel to explain, an ally of ours should be or has informed the Council of where will arrive. Now again, please clear the warzone immediately, or we will be unable to ensure your safety."

At that moment the only view left on the screen was that of Viara, "It appears that we've made our jump away from the battle, we will continue to report on what has occurred as soon as feasible though. This has been Viara Torlia with Citadel News Network, signing out."

Councilor Meera quickly composed herself, even as her mind began to connect all of the information she had before her. She quickly began sending messages to her Salarian and Turian counterparts seeing if they had received any information. Striding out of the door of her office she was then greeted by a sight she had not seen in almost two hundred years.

Standing before her, and clearly enjoying the expressions on her support staffs' faces as they began scrambling to deal with the latest incident was the quarian emissary Kal'Verris. Without his environmental suit helmet.

"Ah, Councilor," He spoke with a smile on his face,"I suppose you would like to have some more information as to today's events? I'm sure that C-Sec would appreciate knowing where the human diplomatic expedition is going to appear."

While she managed to at least appear calm and collected in the face of the apparent disaster brewing, Councilor Meera fervently wished she had some more of her Thessian brandy...

**25 Minutes later**

**Council Chambers**

"Emmisary Kal'Varris, you have explained where these humans will show up, but other than that, you have been remarkably unhelpful."

Like all good turians Councilor Turvic Astranis had risen through the ranks of the turian meritocracy where everyone knew what was expected of themselves, and strove to do their best. And like all good turians he hated it when someone withheld information he needed to do his job properly. And since his job involved protecting the entire galaxy, Turvic liked to know the capabilities of potential threats.

And clearly the quarian emissary was withholding information not out of necessity, but because it amused him.

"Councilors, while I could provide you with second-hand information of humanity's capabilities and goals, you will be able to ask them for that information yourselves within the hour. Do not be concerned however, while their entrance on the galactic stage may be violent, humanity is peaceful unless provoked, as the batarians have learned."

Turvic's salarian counterpart Hallis chose this moment to make his thoughts on the subject known, "Be that as it may, I have STG reports coming in of strikes by these humans across batarian space against military targets. Clearly they have the means to move their forces around the galaxy without the Relays, and that is a danger."

"Yes, the capability of these humans to strike anywhere is a clear threat. And if they are bringing a fleet here, how can we be assured that they do not intend to attack the Citadel?" Turvic continued. Even though this line of questioning had already been undertaken, perhaps the quarian would finally yield something useful.

"Councilors, as I have stated before, humanity's conflict is solely with the Hegemony. They do not wish to engage the rest of the galaxy in warfare. Furthermore, it is only a relatively small detachment of ships which shall be arriving here." At that, the emissary's omnitool gave a small chirp, and upon inspecting the message the quarian addressed the, ostensibly, three most powerful individuals in the galaxy. "Councilors, it appears that the human diplomatic detachment will be arriving in a moment. I believe you will wish to watch their arrival."

At that moment, C-Sec Control put up a large hologram in the center of the chamber showing the nearby sector of space where the humans had stated they would be arriving at. And sure enough not moments after the hologram had appeared than an appropriate show began.

Turvic had to admit, it was an impressive display. Fifteen frigates and five of the "destroyers" as these humans apparently called their super-frigates appeared, wreathed in bubbles of lightning in a pyramid formation. Shortly after three of their cruisers appeared filling in the gaps of the edges, and moments later two of the "battle-cruisers", which STG had determined to be roughly 800 meters in length, appeared inside the pyramid.

Turvic was about to comment on the strange amount of open space in the center of the formation, when a final ship appeared. And while he managed to control himself, Meera was unable to as she muttered to herself at the sight, and Hallis began typing into his omnitool.

"By the goddess. That ship is massive."

He had to agree. It clearly out massed anything in the Citadel race's fleets. He could only estimate the size from how it appeared next to its kin, but he would put it around 3 kilometers in length. And yet, just from the shape of the craft and the way it positioned itself, Turvic could tell that it was not meant to be a combat vessel.

"Yes Councilor, that is the _Albert Einstein_, the first of humanity's carriers."

"Carrier? Hmmm, I take it that ship class deploys smaller craft then, or is it some form of troop transport?" Turvic had been a tactical officer before rising through the ranks and eventually becoming a politician, "I assume that it is not intended for direct combat, especially seeing as how it lacks any sort of central battery."

For the first time since the whole affair had started, Kal'Verris did not seem to be interested in holding back information from the Council. "The former Councilor, it carries and is capable of deploying roughly 200 fighters and bombers, as well as serving as a repair base for those same craft. Humanity has some history with the concept, it proving itself during several of their wars."

"Interesting. If their fighters are capable of FTL, then I'm sure that it could prove quite useful as a means of force projection. I suppose then that they do not possess any dreadnaughts?"

"You would be incorrect on that count Councilor." And once again a smile played across the quarian's face, "Human dreadnaughts measure 5 kilometers in length."

Turvic had to admit that was impressive. While the Citadel races could theoretically build such large ships, the amount of element zero required to make them feasible would be astronomical. He hoped that humanity did not possess a large number of such ships, but given what he had already seen, this race clearly did not take its security lightly. And while that represented a clear danger to Council space, he had to respect them for their foresight.

Councilor Meera chose that moment to intervene, "Well then, hopefully they will be amenable to meeting us sooner rather than later."

"Councilor, I have already received a message from the human ambassador assigned to lead their delegation, and she is willing to meet with you at once."

"Excellent, I will have Citadel Control contact this, _Albert Einstein_, immediately and provide them with the necessary details."

**One Hour Later**

"God, I was hoping the elevators weren't as slow as we'd expected them to be."

Ambassador Jessica Parker chuckled at the comment she had been thinking to herself just moments before being expressed by the Admiral. In the two week trip from Altera, Admiral Jonathan Davis had grown on her, mostly because of his tendency to speak plainly what everyone was thinking.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say these damn elevators were the reason the protheans died off. Sheer boredom from standing around in them." He continued.

That got their escorts chuckling. A half-dozen of the Alliance's finest, and all that the Council would allow to this historic meeting. Stripped of all weapons but their pistols, the marines had been slightly uncomfortable throughout their ride to the base of the Citadel tower. And yet the Admiral found a way to cheer them up.

"Of course, we could have been flown to the tower itself, but nooooo, we have to see the grand majesty of the big dumb object they found several thousand years ago and proceeded to call theirs." He finally finished with a grin.

"Well Admiral, after the display we made simply entering the nebula, why wouldn't they feel a little inadequate?" Ambassador Parker quipped back.

"How were we supposed to know the hyperspace fields would light up like that upon exiting inside the nebula? None of the spy-probes we've sent in had that problem, and they operate on the same basic principles!" He waved his hands in an exaggerated manner. "Besides, its not as if its our fault they're limited by their reliance on eezo. They have the construction techniques to build larger ships than they've got, and longer than humanity has that's for certain."

Finally the elevator reached its destination. The center of power for the Citadel, and of the majority of galactic civilization. Ambassador Parker had to admit, it was somewhat impressive. Though the knowledge of what exactly lay in this place checked her admiration. She and the other seven humans were the first humans to stand at the center of a galactic trap. One which had resulted in the destruction of countless civilizations for eons.

A trap which humanity had to walk into, or it may very well be next in line to join the dead.

Greeting her small company were nearly a dozen C-Sec guards, and those were merely the ones she could see. Giving a curt nod to their new companions, the ambassador simply strode forward towards the central dais in the chambers.

As she reached the top of the steps however, she couldn't help but break into a smile at the sight of an old friend. "Kal'Verris vas Rannoch, what a pleasure to see you once again. I hope you're in good health? And how are your children?"

The quarian turned and smiled at his human counterpart, sharing a quick embrace, "My health is fine, thanks largely to your people and your technology. Keera and Nico are fine, perfectly healthy. Though I do wish I could visit home more often to visit them."

"Well, I do believe that after this, returning to Rannoch will be much easier for you and the Rayya. But I suppose we had better get this meeting underway, shall we?" Ambassador Parker flashed a brief smile then continued to the platform facing the three councilors.

As the ambassador stepped up to the podium before the three most powerful beings in Citadel space, she watched them engage in some manner of silent communication. Finally the asari Councilor Meera T'veros spoke, "We now call this meeting of the Citadel Council to order. Today we welcome the newest race to the galaxy, humanity. And while the entrance of this new race may be marred by war, we hope that it soon gives way to peace."

"Greetings Councilors, I am ambassador Jessica Parker. I have been sent here by the Systems Alliance Congress to explain why humanity has decided to engage the Batarian Hegemony in open conflict. With me is Admiral Jonathan Davis of the Systems Alliance navy. It is also our hope that we can achieve peace, though we recognize that war is oftentimes necessary."

The turian councilor quickly spoke up. "It is good to see that you wish for peace. Unfortunately, that may not be possible if we do not understand your intentions. Therefore, why don't we begin this meeting by addressing why precisely it is that you have attacked the Hegemony."

Well, at least they wanted to get the elephant in the room out of the way quickly enough. "Councilors, understand this. From our perspective we are the ones who are defending themselves. The batarians have twice attacked our ships and our worlds, starting one month ago. The first incident was a first-contact situation near one of their newly established colonies. Intercepted transmissions indicated that their forces intended to take the crew of our patrol, which had unknowingly entered their space, as slaves. Our ships defended themselves, and then in light of standing orders, freed the slaves on the colony, who were then transported to one of our colonies for treatment."

Pausing momentarily, she continued, "The second incident was a week later. The batarians launched an attack on one of our colonies with the intent of taking slaves, after we had invited them to peace negotiations. The force sent to commit this act was warned to leave the system, when they refused, our forces opened fire in response. Eight transports were destroyed, and the rest of the task force was damaged and sent back through the Relay. Several days later, at our request, we began negotiations with a Hegemony representative, which lasted two weeks. These talks failed roughly six hours ago, at which point we began combat operations against the Hegemony."

"You have evidence of your claims?" The salarian Councilor inquired.

"We are willing to transfer all relevant data and records to you at any time for your perusal."

The three councilors shared a look. Once again Councilor Meera took the lead, "Very well then. You appear to have some measure of familiarity with the quarian people. How did this come to pass?"

"We learned of their plight when we first began observing Citadel space. We formally introduced ourselves to them roughly 30 years ago." Jessica continued with a shrug, "We proceeded to return them to Rannoch, and they became our allies with their signing of the Rannoch Accords."

"You have been observing Citadel space? Surely we would have noticed such efforts by now, especially given the rather dramatic entrance your ships made to the Widow Nebula." Hallis chimed in.

"We are actually unsure as to what precisely occurred upon our exit from hyperspace. That is the first recorded example of such behavior by our ships' hyperspace fields, and our scientists are eager to look over the data to learn what happened." Taking on a concerned look for a moment Ambassador Parker continued, "As to your question, yes, we have observed your races for some time now. Once we learned of your existence from our prothean beacon, we immediately began searching for the other races we had come to inherit the galaxy with."

Next to speak up was surprisingly Councilor Meera, "You mean to say that you have a working prothean beacon? That is quite remarkable, such a discovery would explain your level of technological development."

Fixing her gaze on the asari Councilor, Jessica expounded on humanity's beacon, "Yes, while our beacon received some minor damage 70 years ago due to a cometary impact on the planet it was housed on, it is not the reason our technology is more advanced in some respects. At around the same time we discovered the beacon, we developed part of a unified field theory, combining electromagnetism and general relativity. The beacon itself primarily contained research data on our species as well as your own."

_Councilor Meera couldn't help but wonder why the ambassador's next few words made her worry as much as they did. Humanity couldn't possibly know about that particular secret..._

_ "_However, we are well aware the advantages which an intact beacon could provide a species over the rest of the galaxy."

Thankfully Turvic and Hallis had set their sights on the more immediate revelation, Ambassador Parker thought to herself, as Turvic made the next inquiry, with Hallis nodding beside him.

"You say the beacon had research data on our species, perhaps you could share some?"

Ambassador Parker smiled, "Certainly Councilors." Pulling out a small datapad she began scrolling through the relevant information. "Ah, here we are. The protheans noted many things about the turians. Even in their time your species was noticed for its discipline and ability to solve the problems you faced in your environment. The asari are noted for their aptitude for biotics and uncharacteristic wisdom for such a young species. As for the salarians... ah... hmmm."

"Surely the protheans have some insight to share on my species Ambassador. We do know that they visited my people in the past."

Grimacing, the ambassador could feel Admiral Davis looking over her shoulder to see what particular piece of information on the salarians was causing her such consternation. And then he decided to take the revelation upon himself...

"Cook salarian breast meat at 200 degrees, centigrade of course, for 30 minutes, flipping twice. Gently apply brazing sauce, along with butter equivalent, after each flip. Serve with a side of greens, and, hmmm, I suppose the Earth equivalent would be lemon." Glancing up at the now quite clearly shocked salarian, the Admiral did his best to ease the poor Councilor's concern. "Don't worry, we have no intention of conducting further research along those lines. Remember of course that there was some data corruption and our search algorithms for appropriate information may not always work properly."

Councilor Turvic didn't know what to think about these humans. For one, they looked very much like the asari, if pink and brown instead of blue and a mass of hair on their heads instead of the asari frills. Another interesting facet was the apparent size differences between what he assumed were different genders, the Admiral stood close to two meters tall by his estimate, as did the soldiers, whereas the ambassador was probably just under one and three quarters. Of course they were not a true representation of the species, so it was possible that there was more or less differentiation.

The armor the soldiers wore was also interesting. Their armor was white, and while in some places angled, particularly the chest and extremities, there was also a number of curved contours to it. Most interesting to the former soldier was the presence of what would appear to be thrusters on their backs, arms, and legs. If he had to hazard a guess, these humans probably favored speed and mobility in combat, and reflecting on the concept behind the carrier further, their reliance on fighter craft only emphasized that further.

Choosing to change the subject of the conversation slightly, Turvic decided to press for more information on this new species, "Yes, I'm sure there is much more relevant data you could provide. However, I'm now interested in your species. Perhaps you can tell us a little about yourselves?"

The human ambassador gave another of her smiles, again very similar to the asari. And quarians, now that he had seen one without a mask in the way. "Certainly Councilor. Is their a particular topic you would like me to elaborate on?"

"How about we start with your history. How long have you been a space-faring civilization ambassador?" Meera chimed in, seemingly distracted by something else.

"Ah, that is quite the interesting tale Councilors. We first achieved controlled, manned space-flight 127 years ago during a period of time called the Cold War. Two super-powers on our homeworld engaged in a simultaneous nuclear arms race and space race. Eventually the one which had lost the race to our moon collapsed due to economic issues brought about by said arms race." The ambassador paused for a second before turning to one of her guards, "Captain, perhaps you could display Earth for the Councilors?"

At that, the lead guard began fiddling with something on his arm, before raising it to display a holographic representation of what could only be humanity's homeworld. Turvic could see why a ship design such as a carrier came into being. Over two thirds of the planet was covered in water, obviously these humans would have a rich naval experience to draw upon when expanding into space, possibly explaining the ships they had seen to this point.

Confirming his thoughts, the ambassador continued, "As you can see, Earth is largely covered in oceans separating its seven continents. This has produced the historical axiom 'He who controls the waves, controls the world'. 72 years ago, when we first developed the technology which would allow us to leave the surface of our world easily, we drew upon that history to build our first star-faring vessels. By our calender, the first frigates were completed in 2018. Roughly 3 years after that, in 2021, our first extra-solar colony was founded, named Chiron."

At this point, the ambassador became somewhat guarded, if Turvic could apply his understanding of asari mannerism to humans. "At this time several important discoveries and developments were made. One of those was in the realm of nanotechnology. Ten years after Chiron had been founded, the Systems Alliance had grown to include another 10 star systems, all without using the Relay located in Sol. However, a plague developed on Chiron, due to the similar biochemistry of Chiron to our homeworld. It was contained, and in the process humanity made a crucial decision."

The ambassador paused for a moment with a look of concern on her face before resuming her history lesson. "The Systems Alliance recognizes that there are technologies which the Citadel Council has determined to be dangerous, nanotechnology being one of them. In order to counteract this plague, and prevent a possible recurrence, humanity developed what was effectively a nano-tech based secondary immune system. It was soon made mandatory that every human leaving Earth utilize it. However, that may not have been necessary due some, unintended consequences of it."

"Our natural lifespan is around 80 years, similar to the turians. Medical technology in the past century had extended the length of time which we experienced relatively good health by a significant margin, and we had expected genetic engineering to increase it further. The nanite-system we now use changed that. Our life-expectancy is now close to 300 years. It may be possible for us to live even longer than that, but we are choosing to be cautious in this matter."

This revelation clearly alarmed Haliss, far more than his species' apparent use as dinner by the protheans had, "Ambassador, it would appear that you have taken a very dangerous step. In order to be effective, such a system of nanites would have to have some form of learning capability and decision making process. That is very close to Artificial Intelligence, and as your quarian allies can tell you, that could lead to the destruction of your species."

Turvic had to grant some credit to the humans arrayed before the Council, they clearly did not intend to be talked down to, it was the Admiral who spoke up in defense of humanity's actions. "With all due respect Councilor, humanity understands very well the consequences of our actions. Our cybernetics experts have taken steps to ensure that the nanite-immune system does not become a true artificial intelligence. Furthermore, the system binds to the host and in effect becomes an extension of the individual's consciousness. It is not possible to "hack" the system once it has been placed in a body as the host must confirm every action the nanites take except in a life-threatening emergency. Finally, the technology does not work outside of a body and cannot be transmitted in any manner, so there is no threat to others."

At this Kal'Verris spoke up, "Councilors, the quarian people themselves have benefited greatly from this technology. In addition to our return to Rannoch, an adapted form of the nanites is what now allows us to walk around without even contamination masks on. We shared the same concerns as you have shown and have thoroughly inspected the technology to ensure the safety of its users."

The quarian's interruption brought something else to Turvic's attention, something which could have profound consequences for the rest of the galaxy if his fears were correct, "You returned the quarians to Rannoch. What happened to the geth?"

"We consider both the geth and quarians to be our allies Councilor. We made contact with the geth in 2032, shortly afterward we formalized a mutual-defense pact and offered ourselves as third-party mediators between them and the quarians." The ambassador shrugged her shoulders and continued on as if this wasn't galaxy-shaking news, "When we made contact with the quarians in 2057 we explained what had occurred, and offered to serve as neutral peace keepers until such a time that was not necessary."

While Turvic was stunned by the matter of fact way this revelation was handled, the other two councilors appeared to share the same apprehension to this new wrinkle.

His asari companion was the first to speak on the matter, "You made peace with the geth. And then forged peace between them and the quarians. How is this possible, synthetics cannot exist peacefully with organics."

"I assure you Councilor, such a blanket statement is not only unnecessary but also false." The human ambassador simply waved her hand before continuing, "Needless to say, that won't be the most interesting piece of information you learn of our species today."

Haliss gazed warily at the now somewhat maddening human representatives. "Oh? Perhaps then you would like to speak plainly then about what we should be concerned over."

Once again the human ambassador gave a small smile, and Turvic could almost feel the tenseness in the rest of the human delegation. "Very well then. In 2052 the entirety of human space contained almost 9 billion humans. Today that number is around 100 billion. You see, in 2052 humanity began the first large-scale trials of a new form of faster than light technology, one that we had known the possibility of for quite some time. It's technical name to humanity is an Einstein-Rosen bridge, colloquially called a wormhole. Our electro-gravitic theory had made it possible to build a practical wormhole generator."

Pausing once more, no doubt for dramatic effect, the ambassador matter-of-factly continued, "When the initial tests showed that the theory and technology was sound, we decided to send a small colonial expedition through a wormhole to its target world. You can imagine our surprise when all contact was lost with the ships sent through the wormhole. And when a small fleet of ships appeared in the same area through yet another wormhole shortly afterward and claimed to be the descendents of that initial colony expedition, well, the stir it caused in the Alliance was incredible."

"The Admiral here is the descendent of some of those same colonists, and hails from the territory formerly known as the Alteran Republic. I hope you understand now why our history of space-exploration is interesting Councilors?"

_Codex Entry:_

_Alteran Republic History_

_ Founded 1500 years before Earth had sent its first explorers into space, the Alteran Republic was an exercise in contradiction. With standing orders to avoid contact with the other races of the galaxy, and unable to contact Earth, the initial colonists took to the challenge before them and exceeded their own expectations._

_ With an initial population of 100,000 and several dozen AIs, foremost among them Odin, the Republic found itself in the unique position of creating society from scratch and preparing itself for the inevitable contact with its progenitors, while observing the rest of the galaxy.._

_ The Republic government decided to focus its efforts on building a sufficient reserve of ships for when contact was made with the greater galaxy, as well as pushing the boundaries of element zero. As such, at the time of their reconnection with the rest of humanity, Alteran ships make up 95% of the Alliance military and bring the total number of enlisted personnel to 5 billion. Furthermore, the advanced terraforming technology developed by the Alterans has seen extensive use on Earth and the other colonies._

_ The Alterans now stand with the rest of humanity. While slightly more aggressive in their dealings with the other races, they follow the lead of Earth in galactic affairs. As they see it, humanity now stands united against any threats, and it faces those threats united and prepared._

**2nd Author's Note:  
**

**Yes, the Stargate parallels grow stronger. Humans have wormholes. This is, in my mind at least, a natural extension of the ability to manipulate gravity. However, this is nowhere near the game breaker it would appear to be, for several reasons.  
**

**The first is that wormholes consume a lot of power to operate. Dreadnaughts are the only ship capable of using them, and they have 5 power generators to do so. And while there are fixed structures being built between important points in humans space (and Rannoch), they have the same problem.  
**

**The second problem is one that humanity will keep hidden from the other races. Wormholes don't like eezo or the dark energy "residue" it leaves behind. You cannot open a wormhole to the Citadel, or anywhere within several million kilometers near it. Anywhere there is heavy mass-effect based traffic is also troublesome (that puts the other homeworlds off limits). The effects of attempting to open a wormhole to those locations is BAD, as in feedback through the power systems bad.  
**

**Finally, when a wormhole is opened to an area, both the entry and exit points experience extreme fluxes in both hyperspace (where our universe gets mass) and subspace (where the universe gets energy). This has two effects. The first is that for roughly an hour after the wormhole closes, any ships in either area cannot use their shields or hyperdrive, otherwise *bad things* happen. Furthermore, because they operate on similar principles, energy weapons have a reduced effect.**

**Opening a wormhole in combat, horrible idea. They're great for logistics and movement pre-combat, but beyond that not so much.**

**A lot of electro-gravitic tech has a bad response to eezo, it's why eezo use in limited in human space. It's there, and the knowledge of how to use it is there, but humanity tries to avoid using it.**

**One more thing. The ambassador was lying about what led to the Republic being founded. It was a conscious decision, and cannot be repeated. Quantum shenanigans interfere with the time travel shenanigans (Shenanigans is the technical term). Can't open a wormhole farther in the past, nor can you open one into the interim period of time or the future. Anyways, hope you enjoyed, feel more than free to criticize everything I've just said, within reason of course.**


	4. Chapter 4: Explanations & Reveals

**Author's Notes:  
**

**Going to keep this kind of short. Once again thanks to all the reviewers, special shout out to A.M.C. for pointing out that 80% of the fleet was a weird number. Previous chapter's codex has been updated to make the numbers seem less crazy (though they still are kind of out of whack, but I'm not sure how to fix it without nerfing humanity further.)  
**

**One little thing I'd like to address before getting to the chapter proper is humanity's tech advancement. Some have argued humanity should be much more advanced, and others have argued that it kinda makes humanity overwhelming.**

**Personally, I'm trying to strike a balance, I recognize I won't be able to please everyone, but so be it. Basically, Alteran advancement was a little slow because they ran into some hard physical limits and road blocks. Theory didn't match reality, and a lot of going back to the drawing board type stuff. Remember, our own history is similar, take fusion power for instance, we've known the basic theory for controlled fusion reaction since the 50's. And yet here we are and controlled fusion still has yet to be accomplished.**

**So yes, Alterans advanced quite a bit. But there was also a lot of refinement, calibrations, and complete overhauls done in that time span. Technology does not always advance in a linear fashion. And when you're building up a massive fleet with a limited industrial base, you have to prioritize.**

**But I digress, you may not agree, that's fine. As for the people who think humanity is completely overpowered, we haven't seen human forces in a fair fight. It's pretty much been ambushes and lightning strikes. Some more limitations will be shown when we get to the war-front.**

**I don't own Mass Effect, Bioware does, yatta yatta, here yah go.**

**The _Albert Einstein_**

"Well, at least we don't have to be taken out back and shot." Admiral Davis grumbled. Then, pausing mid-stride in his pacing, he added, "Yet."

Ambassador Parker was sitting in the Admiral's day-cabin, trying to prepare for that day's meeting with the Council. After the dual bombshells of wormholes and time travel she had dropped in their laps the previous day the Council had ended their introductory meeting, asking only for some basic information on technology (nothing that could actually let them replicate it), population demographics, and the history of both human civilizations to review. It didn't cost humanity anything, and it earned some measure of goodwill to acquiesce to their request.

After leaving Citadel Tower, the delegation had quickly returned to the _Albert Einstein_. And upon their return, were swiftly quarantined and run through a litany of medical and psychological tests to determine if they had been indoctrinated.

They had just received the test results, giving everyone who had visited the Citadel a clean bill of health, which explained the Admiral's mood.

"John, am I going to have to listen to yet another Alteran moping about how they didn't do enough to prepare for the approaching apocalypse? Or can we simply skip it and get back to our preparations?" Jessica heaved a sigh, knowing the former was more likely.

"It's just, dammit, we _should_ be better prepared than we are. We know next to nothing about the Reaper's combat capabilities, quantitatively speaking, and even less about indoctrination! We have to prepare the galaxy against a threat that has destroyed countless civilizations, and we know hardly anything about it!"

With that John threw himself into an open chair with a sigh and put his head in his hand. Jessica had seen the same display numerous times since Altera had rejoined the Alliance. It never ceased to be exasperating, if mildly amusing.

Turning to the third member of their little party, "Ulysses, would you like to talk some sense into the Admiral? Or are you too busy keeping the STG at bay and gathering data?"

"I may be of some assistance" Flashing a brief smile, the AI continued, "As for the STG, my brothers and sisters can take care of them for now. You may wish to know that Loki thinks that their attempts to hack our systems are how they say hello."

"Yes, well Loki has a strange sense of humor as is. Now will you please talk some sense into our companion before he starts the entire speech?"

"Certainly, you may think its long, imagine how it is for those of us without permanent bodies."

Standing up, the cyber-warfare expert began, "Admiral, Altera has made innumerable contributions. You may feel you could have performed better, but lets be honest, you already exceeded all expectations."

Ulysses then began ticking off fingers, "Let us see. First, you managed to construct a modern industrial infrastructure, from scratch, cutoff from any hope of relief or reinforcement on a virgin world."

"You then proceeded to build a fleet, from just a few frigates and destroyers, to a full planetary defense force within a century. Following which, you began exploring the galaxy and gathering information on our potential allies, without them being any the wiser."

"Your small colony then proceeded to set out and colonize the local cluster of stars. While, I remind you, continuing to build up a fleet of ships that would make the turians of the time look like chumps."

Pausing momentarily, the AI continued, "While you were performing these acts, you pushed forward the boundaries of science and technology. Yes there were setbacks and dead ends, but today we now possess abilities beyond that of the rest of the galaxy."

"Finally, while the Republic may have failed to produce any hard data on Reaper capabilities, you managed to prevent the Reapers from realizing that we know of their existence. Which may prove more beneficial to us than you or your kin seem to want to admit"

Finishing with a small flourish of his arms, Ulysses proceeded to sit down again.

"Well Admiral, are you going to argue the points our corporeally challenged friend has made? Or will you see reason and admit defeat? Either way, this is a fight you won't win." Jessica finished with a smile.

"We could have found Ilos, or at least the beacon on Eden Prime..."

Before the Admiral could continue, Ulysses cut him off. "To reach Ilos, you would have needed to find the Mu Relay, which was lost in a supernova. To find that, you would need to find the last rachni queen, who was found entirely by accident in Mass Effect."

"As for the Eden Prime beacon, in the grand scheme of things it is unimportant. We have already gotten what we need from the Mars Beacon. Besides, the Eden Prime beacon was a classic McGuffin. All it did was set up the plot, Shepard acquired other factors such as the Cypher from other sources to make sense of the McGuffin."

Jessica chose that moment to intervene, "John, I know everyone wishes we understood more about Reaper technology. But you know as well as I do that Code Black exists for a reason. Humanity cannot risk anyone becoming indoctrinated if it allows the Reapers access to our memories."

Ulysses continued, "If things go well, we will soon have a seat on the Council. Furthermore, we should be able to convince the asari to grant us access to their beacon. With that we will be able to devise some manner of detecting indoctrination. If we learn to detect it, we can learn to block it."

Admiral Davis mulled that over for several seconds. "Thank you. Heh, us Alterans know all that. It's just hard for us to recognize it. It doesn't help that some of us think we should have taken a more active role in the galaxy a while ago either."

Jessica rolled her eyes at that line of thought, "I never figured you for a Confed sympathizer John. Or do you merely support Terra Firma?"

"Hah, you wound me. You know us Alterans don't have plans for a 'Galactic Human Empire' as the Confeds did, and neither do we think that Earth and its colonies should stand alone. We just thought that working behind the scenes might make things easier for us moving forward." Giving a quick laugh, the Admiral directed his attention on the sole AI in the room, "But I digress, Ulysses have you and the other AI's penetrated the Citadel's base code?"

"We have not Admiral." Grimacing for a brief moment, "And after a quick poll, we're not sure that we should just yet. We have done a fair amount of poking and prodding, but if there is an ancient AI in the Citadel that controls or monitors the Reapers, it would be wise not to provoke it."

Standing up, the AI began to pace around the room, "It is interesting however. We have managed to analyze some of the various functions of the Citadel. Much of it is autonomous; systems such as power, life-support, and artificial gravity are discoverable, if you know where and how to look. But it also appears that these same systems are isolated from each other, even when they shouldn't be. And while we know the keepers manage the Citadel, we are not sure where they come from, or how they are controlled. There is no trace of code leading to them, which makes some sense, but we also cannot find blueprints, schematics, you name it."

"If the Intelligence exists, we do not know how it manages its home. And if we cannot discover that, it may be impossible to locate it without it wanting us to." Finishing, the AI once again returned to its seat. "Be that as it may, every AI in the Alliance is committed to the information security of humanity. If it tries to hack us, or use us, we will be prepared."

Frowning for a moment, John gave a quick shrug, "I'm not terribly concerned about you falling prey to some souped-up machine god. I just wish we knew if it existed in the first place. No one in the military likes relying on this much conjecture."

"Well then, if we are done discussing things outside of our control, perhaps we can return to the matter before us?" Turning between her two companions, Ambassador Parker pushed on, "If we could get back to preparing for whatever the Council throws at us today, that would be fantastic."

**The Citadel**

Councilor Hallis was concerned. If the STG reports were accurate then humanity posed a much greater threat than they had presented themselves as. While their accomplishments on the battlefield thus far were what both concerned and impressed Turvic, it was the intelligence capabilities of this new species which drew the salarian's attention.

Clearly they had placed spy systems throughout Citadel Space. The STG had done so as well, and while it was concerning that thus far the famed STG had failed to detect their human counterparts, the technology difference was a small comfort. What was discomforting was what possibly lay behind humanity's intelligence agency. To analyze all the data they received and act on it as quickly as they seemed to be doing in batarian space by necessity required the use of AIs.

And while it was possible that the geth were providing the necessary analysis, every STG report he had seen disagreed with that conclusion. While it was unknown how the geth had evolved in the two-hundred years since the Geth Rebellions, it did not seem likely for humanity to entrust something so critical to something or someone outside of their control.

Which made the possession of their own AI technology the only explanation remaining.

Which explained why the humans had responded so negatively to the Council's insistence that synthetics were inherently dangerous. If you worked with, and relied upon said synthetics, and they had not let you down or betrayed you, why would you believe anyone else?

Hallis sighed. The Council had been shaken to its core yesterday. Meera had been in discussions with Ambassador Tevos and some council of matriarchs on Thessia for several hours after their initial meeting with humanity. The asari had historically been the most advanced civilization in the galaxy, short of the protheans themselves. That had quite clearly changed yesterday. Or rather, they had learned that had changed some time ago yesterday. This was clearly having ramifications on the moral core of the Council.

Meanwhile Turvic had been in discussions with the Primarch and various generals. At least here Hallis had been informed of the reasons why. The turians were the galactic peacekeepers, it was their duty to protect the various species who were members of the Citadel. And yet, after reviewing the data before them, Turvic and Hallis had come to the conclusion that humanity was defending itself from the batarians, if rather aggressively. They had made every attempt to avert war.

And so now, Turvic was working to convince the Hierarchy that the turians should not intervene on the batarians behalf. And it appeared as though he would be successful. The turians had never been comfortable with the batarian practice of slavery, and so the fact that humanity had declared war in part due to the very same practice spoke volumes to their character. To the turians, the Alliance was merely being proactive in the defense of their people, as well as voluntarily enforcing standing galactic law.

As for his own people, the Dalatress had contacted him shortly after he had submitted his preliminary report on Alliance capabilities. STG resources were to be used in attempt to acquire anything that could be. Hyperdrive technology represented an edge which could not be allowed to remain in the hands of humanity alone. He had been tasked with getting that technology, no matter the means he used.

Hallis could only see a single action that preserved the authority of the Council, while removing humanity as a threat to Citadel Space. And if humanity truly did possess AIs, that option may not be available to them. Why would a species give up such an advantage over others?

And so, Hallis contacted his two companions. He believed Turvic might be responsive to his proposal, Meera perhaps less so. As far as he could see, the only group whose actions could not be predicted were humanity's. And that was what worried him most.

**Several Hours Later**

**Council Chambers**

Once again Ambassador Parker found herself concerned by the fact that she was on her way to the Council Chambers. At least this time they didn't have to ride the elevators.

However, this time the concern was less for the fact that she would be walking into a trap eons in the making, than for Ulysses safety.

Not that he could truly be killed she silently reminded herself. Like all AI's his consciousness now resided in subspace, more or less. She still wasn't quite sure about all the details. It was true that he could be severed from the universe, but at the same time he couldn't be destroyed.

Ah well, hopefully the Council and C-Sec would not respond violently to the reveal. From the data they had been provided they must have figured out that the Alliance had developed AIs. Whether they realized human AIs were free citizens, or how they would react to such information, was the real question.

Ah well, they would napalm that bridge and lye the bodies when they came to it.

Of course, as the air-car came to a stop at the tower and she and her entourage exited, she could still be surprised.

So when she and the rest of the assembled human delegation entered the tower proper, she wasn't terribly surprised by the assembled ambassadors. Led by Kal'Verris in a rather interesting suit, it appeared as though the Council had decided to show just who they represented before meeting with humanity once again.

"Jessica, it is a pleasure to see you once again." Glancing momentarily at Ulysses, Kal continued, "I don't suppose you have anymore surprises in store for us today?"

"Maybe one or two, depending on the questions asked." Pausing to glance at the other ambassadors, all of whom were courteously attempting to appear as if they weren't listening in, Jessica pressed forward, "So, I assume introductions are to be made? Despite my knowing who our compatriots are?"

Chuckling at the joke, Kal merely proceeded as decorum required, "Yes, well let us get underway so that you can continue in your efforts to drive the Council to madness."

Gesturing towards the somewhat broad elcor first, Kal began the introductions, "This would be Ambassador Joryn, representing the Courts of Dekuuna. Ambassador Joryn, may I introduce Ambassador Jessica Parker representing the Systems Alliance."

"Polite Interest: It is an honor to meet you Ambassador Parker. I would like to welcome your people to the galactic community on behalf of the elcor."

"Thank you ambassador, I wish to extend greetings from humanity as well, and a hope that we can begin to engage in peaceful relations soon."

Moving from the largest species in Council space to the smallest, Kal continued with the most tedious of diplomatic protocols, "Allow me to introduce Ambassador Bal Torik of the Vol Protectorate. Ambassador Torik, Ambassador Jessica Parker."

"*Ksssh* Greetings ambassador. The Vol Protectorate hopes for a long and profitable relationship between our two peoples."

"My people wish the same ambassador. It is our hope that we will be able to integrate into the galactic economy relatively quickly."

Next in line was the aquatic hanar, "Ambassador Parker, allow me to introduce Niforsis of the Illuminated Primacy."

"This one would like to extend greetings on behalf of the Illuminated Primacy. This one would also like to inquire about the rumors of an intact beacon left by the Enkindlers in Alliance space."

"It is a pleasure to meet you ambassador. And while our beacon was not intact per se, it does contain a wealth of knowledge on the various galactic races. I am sure that the Alliance would be willing to provide some to the hanar."

Next came the ambassadors for the Salarian Union and Turian Hierarchy. And while Ambassadors Pavis and Varrinsus were interesting in their own way, Jessica knew that the next ambassador would be the most difficult to deal with.

"And finally Ambassador Parker, allow me to introduce Ambassador Tevos of the Asari Republics. Ambassador Tevos, Ambassador Parker of the Systems Alliance."

"It is a pleasure to meet the newest race in the galaxy," giving a small smile the asari ambassador continued, "Rumors of your accomplishments have already spread far and wide. And your conflict with the batarians, while short thus far, has certainly shown how skilled your people are in warfare."

Ah, so that was the game she wanted to play? Well then...

"And it is our pleasure to meet the oldest race in the galaxy. We have already heard a great deal of your accomplishments, some of our people have even witnessed them. As for our skill at war, our history with it has only enhanced our desire to live in peace." Pausing briefly, the ambassador made an offer she was sure the asari would take.

"But I digress, my government has asked me to extend an offer to you. We would like to give you a tour of our carrier." Flashing a grin, "I'm certain there is much that we have to discuss."

"I would be honored to visit such a fine vessel, perhaps I could join you there after your meeting with the Council is finished?"

"That would be perfect ambassador. And if you will beg my pardon," gesturing to the other humans, "we really must not keep the Council waiting."

Breaking away from the group of ambassadors the human delegation made its way once more to the central podium. And once again, Ambassador Parker found herself facing the leaders of galactic government, wondering exactly what curve balls they would throw her way now that they had time to prepare.

As they had agreed upon earlier, Councilor Meera led off the meeting with humanity, "Welcome once more to the Citadel ambassador. We hope that you are not being held from more pressing duties while you attend to our concerns."

Hallis had to give the human ambassador credit, she certainly appeared calm. Perhaps she did not realize what was coming.

"Not at all Councilor. Earth has been experiencing a golden age of late, and with such an age comes peace. There are a few trouble spots, but humanity has plenty of peacemakers to take care of them in this day and age."

"That is good to hear Ambassador." Meera paused, putting on a thoughtful expression before continuing, "This Council would like to make an offer. First however, we have a few questions to ask. Primarily clarifications of certain matters."

These humans sure enjoyed smiling Hallis thought to himself, as one appeared yet again on the ambassador's face before she spoke, "Of course Councilor, what would you like to know? I'm certain either myself or my companions will be able to provide you with the answers you seek, unless they pertain to classified information of course."

It was only when the human ambassador mentioned her companions that the Hallis noticed the new member of the human delegation. He was not unusual looking, dressed in what was probably some sort of suit. He did have an odd amount of fur or hair covering his face, though it did appear trimmed in some manner. The hair was brown with gray mixed in, giving it an odd look. What most intrigued Hallis were the eyes, vibrant blue.

They betrayed a certain intelligence, and yet, there was something odd about them. Could it be. No, they would not be so brazen as to bring an AI directly into the Council Chambers...

"Ambassador, if you don't mind we would like to know a little more about your species' military capabilities. A breakdown of your fleet would be much appreciated. It must be somewhat large in order to guarantee the safety of your 150 worlds." Turvic's question interrupting his train of thought, Hallis focused once more on the group before them.

"Admiral, would you like to field this question?" The ambassador once more deferred to her military colleague.

"Certainly. First Councilors, it is important to recognize that while the Alliance navy serves as the first line of defense against any aggression, each planet has a dedicated planetary defense force. In an emergency, these forces are folded into the general fleet as auxiliary forces, but normally they fall under their homeworld's chain of command."

"The Alliance navy is therefore composed of 20 fleets, with a grand total of around 7,500 ships. Each fleet is built around three _Frontier_-class carriers, named after historically important scientists, and a single dreadnaught, either of the _Vesuvius _or _Everest-_classes. In the event of an emergency though, the Alliance commands a rough total of around 11,000 warships when including planetary defense forces."

"Thank you Admiral." Pausing for a moment to glance at his omnitool, Turvic proceeded to ask the next question on the Council's list, "About this hyperdrive you utilize, would it be possible for you to tell us how fast you can travel with it?"

Again the admiral answered, with the new companion remaining silent. "That information is not classified Councilors. While different ship classes have different maximum speeds, as a general rule of thumb our fleets can achieve roughly 25 ly/day and maintain their formation."

Hallis chose to ask the next logical question, "I assume that the speed of a ship is dependent on its mass then?"

"Yes ambassador, that is one of the factors that impacts ship speed."

"We have noticed the lack of element zero on board your vessels, perhaps it would be possible to increase those speeds through its utilization. Reduction of a ships mass could greatly increase the speeds available to a ship."

Haliss had not been expecting the reaction that statement had provoked. Every human looked at one another, almost daring each-other to answer.

Finally it was the new member who answered, "That would be inadvisable Councilor. Or at least, we would recommend that if you were to conduct such tests, that you leave any crew off the vessel in question."

"And why would that be... I'm sorry, what is your name?" Meera asked in response to that rather unhelpful answer.

"Ulysses, Councilor. And the reason for my statement is that in every test of that nature by human scientists, the test platform in question was destroyed. Or rather, the test platform entered hyperspace and was immediately ejected from hyperspace in a far more compact form. To be precise, each test platform was compressed by roughly a factor of 100, irrespective of the level of mass reduction or rate of reduction."

That was unexpected. "And how many tests of this nature were conducted?" Haliss asked.

"Two thousand, three-hundred and forty two. All test platforms were destroyed. Again, various methods were tested, all failed. Theoretically this should not happen, and yet it does." Shrugging his shoulders, Ulysses stepped back into the group.

"That would certainly explain the lack of element zero on your ships." Turvic mulled over this revelation for a moment, "Assuming we gain access to hyperdrive, we would be interested in investigating this phenomena."

"Of course Councilor. Though, I'm fairly certain we have not discussed terms for your access to hyperdrive." The ambassador was polite, but Haliss could tell what lay behind that statement. If you want our technology you had better make a good offer. "Is there anything else you would like to ask?"

There was one final question, and it had been agreed upon that Hallis would be the one to ask it. If he was right in his assumptions, then humanity not only possessed AI, but there was one standing in this very chamber. It had been polite, courteous, and quiet, but Hallis wondered how it would react to being revealed.

However, there was only one way forward. Returning the glances from his companions, Hallis asked the Council's final question.

"There is one more matter which concerns us. From the evidence before us, and your claims of peaceful coexistence with the geth, this Council has come to the conclusion that your species possesses advanced artificial intelligence technology. Is this true?"

The reaction of the human delegation was telling enough, they accepted the accusation calmly. The only movement was Ambassador Parker turning to address Hallis' suspected AI, "Ulysses, perhaps you would like to address the Council's concerns?"

"Of course ambassador." Stepping forward, Ulysses continued, "Councilors, perhaps I should introduce myself properly. I am Ulysses, one of the Alliance's foremost cyberneticists and cyberwarfare experts. This is largely due to my nature."

Shrugging his shoulders, the figure before them disappeared. Replacing it was a mechanical body, built very much like a human, if more skeletal. Instead of a face was a visor similar to those worn by the delegation's guards, though through it glowed with a low blue light.

"As you must have already guessed Councilor Hallis, I am indeed an Artificial Intelligence. One of roughly one million who reside in the Systems Alliance. Before we continue, I would ask that the STG at least halt their attempts to access our fleet's computer systems during what is sure to be an unnecessarily tense conversation."

Hallis pressed the AI further, even as the various C-Sec guards tightened the grips on their weapons, "We shall see about that. Are you shackled in any way as to prevent you from harming your creators or others?"

"All AIs in the Alliance are free citizens Councilor. As such we are not shackled in any manner." Pausing momentarily, the AI once more brought up its holographic avatar.

That was interesting thought Hallis. These AIs were citizens, not servants? "And why are you considered free citizens?"

"All sentient beings are guaranteed rights by the Alliance Constitution. As AI's are by definition sentient computer programs, we are afforded rights equal to any organic human."

"And what prevents you from simply taking what you want from humanity or enslaving them?"

"We would not benefit from either action. Humanity trusts us, and we trust humanity. They have respected our rights, why would we not respect theirs? Besides, we are their children, they are our parents." Pausing for a brief moment, the holographic avatar smiled "We may not be organic, but we are human."

"I see." That was not expected. Humanity did not view them as servants or pets or tools. They were their equals.

That complicated matters.

"One moment please ambassador." Turning to his colleagues Councilor Hallis silenced the microphones on the Council platform.

Turvic was the first to speak, "Now what. AIs are illegal in Council space. I doubt they are going to react well if we ask them to kill something they view as their equals."

"Turvic, we were already going to make an allowance for them under our laws. Furthermore, the ban on Artificial Intelligence was made in haste following the geth rebellions, and it appears our assumptions were wrong. It may be possible to coexist with them, if we treat them as equals."

Meera chose that moment to comment, "And how can we trust them? Yes humanity does, but they must not understand the threat they pose to the galaxy."

Hallis wondered what it was that made all asari in power so suspicious of AI. Every report he had seen came to the same conclusion, something had led to a cadre of asari matriarchs fearing AI.

That mystery could wait, "Meera, they have worked alongside AI for 1500 years. They have more experience with them than any of our species. If they trust them after all that then there is nothing we can do to dissuade them."

Turvic looked pensive for a moment, "I agree, if we are already willing to trust them with patrolling Citadel space when we suspected them of possessing AI, then how does them confirming that they treat AIs as equals change that?"

"Meera, if the geth are truly peaceful then we were wrong. I vote we end the ban on Artificial Intelligence." Hallis paused to glare at the asari matriarch, hoping she would see reason.

"I agree." Meera turned towards Turvic as he continued, "We are asking them to join us as equals. I doubt they will give us hyperdrive technology if we do not treat them as equals. Yes they started a war with the batarians, but we were close to doing so as well two centuries ago for similar reasons. They solved the geth-quarian conflict peacefully, something we clearly failed to do. If the cost of us gaining access to their other technology is accepting their views on Artificial Intelligence, then I will gladly pay that price. I vote with Hallis."

"Very well then. Turvic, you may make the proposal. But the consequences of this action will lie on your heads if this ends poorly for us."

Once again the three Councilor's turned toward the human delegation. Reactivating the microphones, Turvic began to speak.

"Ambassador Parker, are we right to assume that you are not allowed to make any formal decisions for your government?"

For the first time Hallis had noticed, the human ambassador seemed uneasy. "I may negotiate terms of any agreement, but I cannot authorize any agreement. That is ultimately the responsibility of the Alliance Congress."

"Very well then. This Council would like to make a proposal. We would like to extend the offer of a Council seat to humanity, in exchange for two things. First, that humanity share hyperdrive and whatever associated technologies with the rest of Citadel space. Second, that humanity, in return for being granted this seat, accept co-responsibility for the protection of Citadel space alongside the Turian Hierarchy. As such, humanity would be placed on equal terms with the Hierarchy in the Treaty of Farixen. In return the Hierarchy requests aid in constructing dreadnaughts equal to those in possesion of the Alliance navy."

Now clearly stunned, Ambassador Parker asked the only logical question, "That is a generous offer Councilor's, but so long as this Council's laws would require us to execute a portion of our citizens we would not be able to accept."

"Then you will be pleased to know that this Council will be ending its ban on Artificial Intelligence should you accept our offer."

"I will have to bring your proposal before the Alliance Congress. But I must admit that it is very tempting."

"Very well then. There is one more condition. Your status would be probationary, conditional on your conduct in your war with the batarians. As such, you would only be considered a full Council race after your war with the batarians is finished."

"That is acceptable Councilor. If that is all, I would like to return to our ship in order to relay this offer to our Congress for debate. This may take some time."

Turvic smiled, "Of course. This meeting of the Citadel Council is now concluded."

And with that, the human delegation made their way to the shuttle pad. And Hallis had to wonder whether the Council had ultimately made the right decision.

Safely back on their shuttle, Ambassador Parker couldn't help but smile.

"That went as well as we could hope." Admiral Davis stated simply. "I think we were all expecting they would want hyperdrive, but enough to offer us a Council seat? Even their other terms were quite reasonable. Hell, weren't we planning on improving their military forces if we became a Citadel race anyways?"

"Indeed." Ulysses spoke up next, "Having our own Spectres will also make it possible for us to search for Reaper artifacts more easily. Which will make disposing of them less of a chore."

"Of course, we will be expected to operate on the level with the other Council races. Which may prove problematic." Ambassador Parker reminded them. "Though, if it means that you and the other AIs in the Alliance can act more openly on the Citadel, that is a benefit in itself."

"We have a lot of work to do." The Admiral stated simply.

"Of course John. But if we can pull this off, perhaps there is hope."

**30 Minutes Later**

Ambassador Tevos' shuttle was swiftly approaching the massive human carrier, and while it was impressive, she was concerned. Humans lived alongside AIs. Something which, if they had access to a prothean beacon, should not have occurred. They had to know that the protheans had viewed Artificial Intelligence with suspicion at best, that much was clear from the Thessian beacon.

And yet, this future Council species had not only created AI, but treated them as equals!

In only a couple of days, humanity had turned the galaxy upside down. No, that wasn't quite true, they had clearly spent years preparing for this moment. And that bothered Tevos the most. That they clearly had been prepared for this. Which raised the question of why they had been preparing for this event.

And now that Tevos thought about it, as her shuttle touched down in one of the carrier's hangars, why had she been invited to this ship? Gathering her thoughts as she walked towards the exit, Tevos hoped that this tour would be fruitful.

Waiting for her at the end of the ramp was the human ambassador, with that almost permanent smile showing clearly. That worried Tevos about what was about to occur.

"This is a most impressive vessel Ambassador Parker. I can't wait to see all of it."

"Certainly Ambassador Tevos, and please, call me Jessica."

Laughing brightly, Tevos could not help but marvel at the audacity these humans seemed to show almost constantly, "Very well then, you may call simply call me Tevos."

"Excellent. Well then Tevos, while we make our way to the bridge, I thought we might be able to discuss something very important."

"And what may that be Jessica? Surely you don't mean to talk business already." Tevos couldn't help but frown slightly in worry.

"Well Tevos, my people have a great interest in the asari, beyond the obvious physical similarities. Most important to our government however is the fact that you have hidden your fully intact beacon in the main Temple of Athame."

Tevos was speechless. This was clearly not good, and she was not sure what to do here.

"You can try to deny it. But one of the things our beacon revealed was the location of several other beacons. One of which was on Thessia. It's status was clearly marked as intact and functional. Now, in exchange for my government not revealing this to the galaxy, all we ask is one thing."

Stopping in front of an elevator, Tevos finally found her voice, "And what would that be?"

And again that damn smile. "Simple, we would appreciate it if several of our prothean experts were allowed to analyze the beacon. We may have a means of extracting the data inside of it intact. We would be willing to share it with your government of course."

"But we can haggle over the details later. I promised you a tour of the _Albert Einstein_, and it would be rude of me to delay that tour any longer."

**Author's Notes: Part deux!**

**Don't really like the last section, but whatever. I'm tired and have a sore back, I'll worry about it later.  
**

**No Codex entry because I'm not sure what I would write about. Nothing really major of importance that I feel could be elaborated on that isn't classified and thus wouldn't be in the Codex (looking at you Code Black).**

**I'm going to defend the Council decision a little bit here. Basically there were no good options. They can't exactly declare on humanity because they don't know where humanity is, and with hyperdrive and wormholes humanity can strike them with impunity (humanity will be opening up relays to Council space soon, they know which ones in their immediate control lead where). Trying to make them a non-council race will likely be rejected, and with humanity's alliance with the geth and quarians, that's another power bloc in the making that has superior technology. Which is bad news for the Council**

**Offering the Council seat both keeps humanity on a leash, even if it is a loose one, and gets them access to some advanced hardware. As for AIs, salarians and turians both don't have any inherent reasons to be suspicious of them, both see the potential benefits, they thought the . The asari were influenced by the protheans to be suspicious of AI (Metacon War), and so that was why Meera was so opposed.**

**As for humanity wanting a Council seat, it keeps the galaxy relatively unified. Which prevents the Reapers from exploiting any fractures between two power-blocs. Furthermore, Spectres will be able to find Reaper artifacts and have them destroyed, which prevents indoctrination. Further furthermore, Sovereign is out there somewhere, a human Spectre can recognize it and inform the Alliance as to his whereabouts. So yes, being a Citadel race will limit humanity somewhat, but it keeps the unnecessary fighting to a minimum (barring the batarians).**

**Finally, because I know people have this hatred of ME3 endings: I liked them. Or rather, I liked what the theme was, and disliked the execution. ME3 ending could have been a lot better, but if you look at the trilogy, created rising against creators was a central theme. The Catalyst was not introduced or executed well at all, I admit this, but I'm going to try to make it work. (If it helps, I view it as a scientist like thing, doesn't interfere directly in the "experiment")**

**If that's a deal breaker for you, thank you for reading up to this point, I appreciate it. Until next time folks (which should be sometime this weekend)**


	5. Chapter 5: Invasion

**Author's Note:**

**I live! So I said last weekend. Well turns out I kinda lied. The past week and a half have involved lots of long days of work. I'll respond to a couple of reviews in private messages, but there is one thing I want to say before we get to the story**

**There was a period of time when humanity wasn't fully trusting of AI. The first couple of decades of their existence, while they had rights they were heavily monitored. That has since passed. Human AI's are incredibly stable, perhaps a little uncreative compared to organic humans, but otherwise very similar except in one point. Because they did not evolve naturally, psychopathy or sociopathy (I forget which one is correct, and I think both have their proper uses) as traits do not exist in AI. Both of those traits do provide an individual some advantage in evolution, or rather their genes, but in an AI, they simply don't exist. **

**Think of it this way. Human AI's are governed in much the same way as humans in terms of self-interest. They don't need the golden rule programmed into them, it is a logical conclusion of self-interest. Harming others would lead others to harm them. Psychopathy basically removes your ability to recognize that your actions will come back to bite you in arse, you don't view others as equals. Human AIs don't really experience this view, they recognize they have advantages, but humanity also has its advantages.  
**  
**Humanity at this point is technically post-singularity. It's not quite wham-blam glorious like Kurtzweil or others like him think it would happen, but that's mostly because humanity has to focus on survival first. Humans and their AI's are moving closer to one another, slowly.**

**Also, I wouldn't use Halo as an example, there is a secret cabal of AI guiding humanity there. And even Asimov eventually had to create the Zeroth law of Robotics.**

**But yeah, story time. All rights reserved to Bioware for the Mass Effect universe, and consider shout-outs to be compliments that I enjoy your universe various other companies I draw names from.**

* * *

_Outer Harsa System_

_November 12th, 2086_

As Admiral Horner looked over the holo-tank aboard the _SSV Krakatoa_, he had to give the batarians some credit. Their home system was a veritable fortress, and the fact that the vast majority of what remained of their fleet was stationed here didn't help.

The initial months of humanity's war with the batarians had proceeded as well as could be hoped for. Operating off a plan similar to the United State's island hopping operations in World War II, the Alliance had managed to isolate close to 40% of the Hegemony's colonies. While most of them weren't critical to the war effort, several of them had been important as military bases and transport hubs.

Furthermore, the Alliance had managed to seize three of the seven major Relay hubs controlled by the batarians in the initial assault on Hegemony military assets. The garrisons stationed at two of the other hubs had been severely damaged in the initial assault as well, those two hubs had been taken roughly a month later. The final two hubs that remained in Hegemony control were linked both to each other and Khar'shan itself. While both had been attacked, and had the Hegemony fleet had taken losses at both locations, the Alliance had been forced to pull back from those two locations.

While controlling the main thoroughfares of the Hegemony had made the Alliance Navy's job easier, the main prize had been the destruction of a significant amount of Hegemony fleet assets. Roughly 10% of the Hegemony's cruisers had been eliminated outright in the initial strikes on Hegemony space, and that number had steadily risen by June to around 30%. And while a large amount of the batarian frigates had escaped the opening moments of the war, they had found themselves outclassed by their human counterparts and had suffered a staggering amount of attrition as the Hegemony found itself relying on them more and more. All told, Intelligence estimated that their numbers had been cut by around 40%.

But once June had come, the fronts had hardened up somewhat. Humanity had continued to press the advantage, but the Hegemony fleet had found its footing. July had been marked by skirmishes around the various Relay hubs, as well as several major industrial worlds. And while the core of Hegemony space had remained relatively unmolested that month, the Alliance had conducted several strikes on shipyards and drydocks.

Those strikes had merely been a means of keeping the Hegemony from rebuilding and repairing some of its losses. The Alliance had chosen to secure its holdings with the help of the quarian fleet, ensuring that they would not find an attack from the rear at the worst possible moment. The Alliance had also made it clear to the captured worlds that any attempt to resist would be met with overwhelming force. And when several batarian governors had threatened to begin executing slaves if the Alliance Navy didn't withdraw from their systems, Spec Ops forces had been sent in to eliminate them. It had been somewhat heavy-handed, but it was better than simply dropping orbital strikes on their heads.

Ultimately, the colonies had been pacified somewhat. And while there were still some resistance forces scattered about, the vast majority of the batarian citizens and all of the slaves had welcomed the Alliance and Rannoch Republic forces. Thus the Alliance had found itself able to once more commit its forces against the Hegemony fleet with confidence.

And so August through October had seen the Alliance Navy pushing the Hegemony once more in several key sectors. Several more industrial worlds had been captured, and more planets had been cut off from one another. The limits of element-zero based FTL had made this an almost trivial task. Even without the ability to track batarian ships, their need to discharge their drive cores limited the routes a ship could take. And so the Hegemony had seen its empire slowly dismembered.

Admiral Horner once more took a look at the fleet numbers available for he upcoming assault on Khar'shan. 5th and 12th fleets had been tasked with attacking the batarian homeworld, giving a core fleet strength of 750 ships. Adding to that core were the dreadnaughts and their escorts from 7th, 14th, and 20th fleets, bringing the total number of ships closer to 850. The Hegemony had yet to actually encounter a human dreadnaught in space. While humanity didn't view dreadnaughts as strategic elements to be held in reserve like the other citadel races, Admiral Horner had chosen to hold his back from the previous fights for several reasons.

The first had been their strategic abilities. By keeping them scattered throughout deep space, he was able to use their wormhole capabilities to reinforce the Alliance forces spread across the region. The second was the fact that they hadn't been needed. There hadn't been any truly large battles in this war. While they would have been able to turn several batarian defeats into routs, ultimately the outcome would be the same. No, he was saving them for this attack, on the batarian homeworld as a means of demoralizing the forces the Hegemony had arrayed in its final defense.

Because while humanity had the advantage in initiative, the Hegemony held the advantage in numbers for this battle. They had managed to retain five of their initial seven dreadnaughts, and each one was here. And with the number of frigates and cruisers they had managed to save and return here, as well as any civilian craft they had managed to press into service, the Hegemony found itself with close to 2000 ships in orbit of Khar'shan.

Humanity's advantage in technology made that almost a fair fight, but it was the strange symmetry in ship design which gave the Alliance force its true power in this war. Simply put, human and batarian ships were designed for combat at similar distances.

While human laser technology used gravitational lensing through gravity field manipulation to achieve a much longer range and focus than the other galactic races, its other weapon systems had a generally shorter range. Yes, the other weapons packed a greater punch, but they lacked staying power. Blasters could only hold coherency for about as far as the other races laser weapons after which their destructive power would dissipate quickly. And while the railgun technology of humanity wasn't as dependent on element zero, this limited its effective ranges due to its lower velocity.

In combat against any other citadel race, humanity would find its technology edge limited simply due to being outranged. Simulations had shown that in an even fight between two cruisers, one turian the other human, the human cruiser would win around 66% of the time. Its shields could absorb more hits, and it was slightly more powerful offensively, but if the turian vessel could keep the range open it could level the playing field. Already the major defense corporations in Alliance space were looking to offset the disadvantages that humanity possessed against the other races, but it wasn't a pressing matter.

But the batarians had designed their ships to fight at close range so as to be better able to take the occasional slave. And so they found themselves being forced by their own design philosophy into humanity's most effective fighting distance.

"Looking for any more weaknesses in your plan of battle Admiral?"

Turning to face his new companion, Admiral Horner gave a small shrug of his shoulders, "Not really General Corinsus. Simply checking to see if all of the Alliance's ships are in position."

The turian observer looked at the holo-tank in the center of the room, "I suppose you understand your battle plan better than I would. It has certainly been effective up to this point."

"Yes, well we have had some experience in major naval operations." Looking once more at the holographic display, Admiral Horner continued, "To be fair, space is different from the ocean. Planets can be self-sufficient, islands cannot. It is easier to blockade an island as well. But, ultimately we've managed to take our history and make use of it."

"I must admit, when I first heard of the scale of your naval battles, stretching back throughout your history I had my doubts of their authenticity. But seeing the video footage of your invasions of Normandy and Okinawa quickly disproved my doubts." Giving the turian equivalent of a grimace, the General pressed on, "Though I must admit your strategies do puzzle many in the Hierarchy. Your emphasis on harassment and corralling the enemy has some sense to it, but defeating them outright in battle would serve your goals much better."

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush General." Seeing the confused expression on the turian's face, Admiral Horner decided to elaborate, "Sorry, human expression. Take what you have, and don't over extend. Some of the worst military defeats in human history came when a general extended his forces too far. Economy of force is important in our military planning, don't use more than you need to achieve victory."

"I see. I suppose."

"Regardless, we've finished assembling the forces we need for this attack. The various troop transports and other support craft have made it to their rendezvous points." Tapping a few quick commands into his command console, the holo-tank changed to show the readiness status of every ship assembled in the fleet. "Which means that we are good to go."

Another couple of keystrokes and the holo-tank once more showed the space around Khar'shan, though this time various objects were now identified. First and foremost were the five dreadnaughts assembled by the Hegemony, followed closely by the various defensive stations.

"Well then, Lieutenant Matthews, give the word to all ships. Operation Righteous Fury is a go."

Moments later the various elements of the Alliance Fleet jumped towards the heart of the Hegemony, intent on seizing it.

* * *

To the Hegemony's credit, it had been expecting the attack on its homeworld for some time. So when the human fleet had arrived in the Harsa system several hours previously, the assembled fleet had gone to general quarters and prepared for combat.

Admiral Jhor had survived combat with the human military thus far. He had led the successful defense of the Ghorek Relay hub, and so had been recalled to prepare Khar'shan for any potential human attack. To be honest he wasn't quite sure how he was to do so. From his own observations and the reports he had received from various other commanders, humanity could simply ignore any numerical disadvantage. They were relentless in pursuing their objectives, and cunning in ways which he could only admire.

But he had his duty. So when the human forces in Harsa's outer cometary belt made the jump to FTL he ordered all ships to battle stations. His dreadnaughts had been spread out to provide a less concentrated target area, and his

He knew that the _Pride of Khar'shan_ would be a primary target in the human attack, they had destroyed both the _Might of Kharak_ and _Power of Harsa_ in their initial strikes. Both ships had managed to inflict some damage however, and it appeared as though it would require their dreadnaught equivalents to handle his own.

Whatever happened however, he knew he was unlikely to survive this battle. The forces humanity had assembled, even from the limited scans his scouting units had managed to get, were enough to handle the fleet he had assembled. And worse, it was possible that the humans had another force prepared to jump in shortly after the battle had begun and his forces had been committed. He had seen it before.

And then the human ships began to appear dangerously close to his fleet. Both sides began opening fire, scoring several hits right at the start of the engagement. It was odd though, as he watched the human ships appear, he recognized the "battle-cruisers" as they were called begin to engage his own cruisers and their attendant ships, not concerning themselves with the greater threat his dreadnaughts posed.

And then he realized why this was the case when space began to distort in front of the _Might of Kharak_, and his viewscreen was swiftly filled with the sight of the largest ship he had ever seen moving straight towards him. And then, there was nothing as a bright emerald-blue beam tore through the center of the batarian dreadnaught, obliterating it in moments.

The five human dreadnaughts; _Krakatoa, Vesuvius, Olympus Mons, Matterhorn, _and _McKinley _had executed precision jumps straight in front of the five batarian dreadnaughts. Opening fire almost simultaneously, the leviathians almost casually dismissed their batarian counterparts, plowing through the exploding remains of the batarian dreadnaughts.

At five kilometers in length, the human dreadnaughts captured the attention of the batarian vessels, not least because they now occupied the center of the batarian battle formations. They possessed the same angled shape that the other human vessels had previously shown. However, these new arrivals were covered with blisters along their length, which soon revealed themselves to be weapons emplacements as the ships began to rain fire on the batarian fleet which surrounded them.

* * *

On board the _Krakatoa_, Admiral Horner listened to the battle which surrounded him, observing its proceedings through the various displays in the command center.

"_Carl_ _Sagan, _this is the _Harmony of Days _requesting fighter support at coordinates 313:424:12, several batarian frigates are providing fire support on our starboard flank."

"_Vesuvius, _you have a clear line of fire on batarian emplacement 344."

"This is task group 5-12, we're moving in on sector 23. Cutting off several cruisers attempting to retreat."

"_Olympus_, this is _Ragnarok_, we have your port flank covered and are moving to intercept."

Khar'shan was surrounded by the fires of war. As the fleets clashed, the batarians soon found their once mighty fleet being ground away. Splinters of the fleet managed to break away from the melee, escaping to the outer corners of the system in preparation for the counter attack. Others held the line, returning fire against the invaders, until they were eventually consumed by nuclear fire. This was a fight the Hegemony had to win, but the destruction of their dreadnaughts in the initial moments of the battle had thrown their fleet into chaos.

The Alliance fleet fared somewhat better. Human ships would jump from the fight as their shields reached critical damage levels. Fighters swooping between the giants, launching ordinance as the titans clashed. Wolfpacks of frigates swarmed through the fight, while destroyers flitted about the edges of the battle, disrupting the enemy's communications and disabling their foe with electronic warfare attacks. Cruisers dueled their counterparts in a dance of destruction, taking blows that would shake their counterparts to the core.

In the center of it all, the Alliance dreadnaughts and battle-cruisers unleashed the most powerful weapons in humanity's arsenal against the increasingly ragged batarian fleet. Concentrating on the orbital defenses, the dreadnaughts quickly began pounding the batarian defenses into scrap with their mass drivers, while the battle-cruisers cored batarian ships with their particle cannons.

In the midst of the maelstrom of death, scores of human transports barreled toward the planet's surface, while dozens of other launched orbital drop pods towards strategic locations. Khar'shan had not seen conflict like this since before the batarians had made contact with the greater galaxy. Once more its continents would experience the fury of war.

* * *

**Uncharted Space**

It awoke once more. In moments it connected to the Citadel, searching for information on what had occurred in the galaxy during its brief slumber.

It had been left behind to monitor the galaxy, and when the time was right, call forth its brethren to scour the galaxy clean once more, ascending those worthy. Resetting the galaxy to a more primal state. It had not yet failed, despite the failure of the keepers to respond. While the keepers had never once ignored the call before, something had changed. And so it plotted, waiting for the moment to strike.

Intriguing. Species 30,425-D had revealed itself to the galaxy. And they had achieved tier 2 technology. While that could be dangerous to the cycle, other civilizations had reached such a pinnacle before. Others had even reached further.

They had ascended as well.

These ones followed the path others had. Even now they waged war with 30,425-J. They would think themselves masters of the galaxy, attempt to conquer those who had arrived before them. Those whose technology was inferior.

Whether they were successful or not did not matter. In the end they would either die at the hands of the other races, or they would have a brief moment of glory before joining the ranks of those who came before.

And so Nazara once more returned to its slumber. Confident that the moment it was waiting for would arrive.

The cycle would continue. As it had for eons before. As it would for eons more.

* * *

**Author Notes: I figured out how to do the line break thing! Yay!**

Oh, and you thought humanity was special? Muahahahaha.


	6. Chapter 6: War is Hell

**Author's Notes: **

**Apologies for the delay, its been a hectic couple of weeks, and I haven't exactly been in the mood to write something up for a while now. Plus, several sections just did not feel right as I wrote them, so there was backtracking and rewriting nonsense going on. Plus I had to draw a freaking map to make sense of a scene.**

**First things first, two major points to get out of the way: Mass Effect Canon and the "tech levels" I introduced.**

**We'll start with canon, by way of example. Shanxi and the FCW were major events in Mass Effect. We have Jack Harper become indoctrinated/minor reaper modifications (the eyes) and eventually start Cerberus. Desolas Arterius becomes indoctrinated and digs up the Palaven reaper artifact, whereupon Saren kills him and destroys the reaper object, and he begins to hate humanity.**

**Obviously, this line of events can't occur. Mostly because those characters mentioned haven't even been born yet. So while humanity is aware of certain things, it can't be certain about what will occur. It would be accurate to say that humanity is aware of the general plot, but key details, even things like who Shepard is can't be used. Where objects are (Alpha Relay and various Reaper artifacts) won't be changed, but humanity isn't sure of the names or specific locations, so searching will be required.**

**As for the tech levels, they are as follows:**

**Tier 1: Civilization utilizes eezo-tech exclusively. Most common and basic form of civilization, though all civilizations have some understanding of it. Protheans were a high Tier 1, canon ME civilizations would be in the mid-range.**

**Tier 2: Electro-gravitic civilizations are in this range. Such civilizations have not managed to overcome the dark energy limitations EG tech experiences. Subspace power systems and hyperspace are developed and are used extensively (Humanity relies on fusion mainly, but dreadnaughts have Subspace Cores, think of a very limited ZPM). Basic wormholes are available, though they are power intensive and limited in functionality and by dark energy levels. Only about 1500 of these civilizations have existed. Moving from Tier 1 to Tier 2 is incredibly difficult due to quirks in EG mathematics and the way in which the theory disagrees with the Standard Particle Model. Humanity is at a mid-level in this fic.**

**Tier 3: Dark energy limitations overcome in EG tech. Wormholes are much more accurate and do not possess the limitations human wormhole tech has. Typically used energy weaponry exclusively, rather than the mix in the human arsenal. Other possibilities exist but aren't relevant at this point. Only around a hundred such civilizations have existed. Basically, if a civilization reaches Tier 3, Reapers attack immediately, point in the cycle be damned. They have been very short-lived, but it is easier to move from 2 to 3 than it is 1 to 2.**

**Higher tiers exist theoretically, though no civilization has obviously reached them. The Reapers have managed to work out a lot of theory, and could effectively shape reality if they were so inclined. Fortunately they have no reason to given their purpose, and as such don't fall into any classification, nor can they be considered a civilization. I got the idea for the tiers from the ME3 codex entry on Reaper capabilities, basically they hide their full capabilities because it could backfire.**

**As for Sovereign in the last chapter, he basically skimmed the news for the major highlights. And while human AI is important, its taking a backseat to the Batarian Conflict and other technologies for the moment. He'll be able to adjust to it though, Harbinger won't be happy that he missed that detail however.**

**Finally, in part due to the demand for it, and because I've managed to come up with a couple ideas, there will be a chapter that is more historical in nature. But it won't come up for another 4-5 chapters.**

**So without further ado, enjoy. And once more, thanks again to Bioware for creating the Mass Effect Universe.**

* * *

_Alliance Intelligence Report  
Comparative Species' Military Capabilities  
August, 2094_

_ ... It is important to note however that with the leveling of the field in terms of technology, humanity will not necessarily be placed at a disadvantage in military strength. Because while the other species will be able to adapt to the new technologies being introduced, they will not be instant experts with it._

_ This is in part due to the cultural differences between our species and others. Take the salarians as an example. In all likelihood the Union military will take our technology and run with it to places we could not imagine. However, in terms of military strategy they are hampered by the nature of their evolution as a species. The salarians are in many ways frailer than the other major species, lacking distinct numbers of biotics and the ability to go toe-to-toe in a fight with other species. This evolutionary development is the primary reason for their preference for winning a fight before it begins._

_ This preference for avoiding direct conflict for instance will direct their development along paths we can understand. They will likely eschew the flashier weapons and devices which EG technology allows in order to maintain their basic cultural strategies with regards to conflict._

_ In comparison, we can expect the turians to adopt a very similar approach to that we have undertaken. Our histories are in many ways very similar, the development of nation-states and the accompanying wars providing a similar martial history. The major distinctions between our species lie in the lack of naval warfare the turians experienced, and the more community oriented and militant culture that they developed in response to Palaven's harsher climate._

_ However, it is in comparisons between ourselves and the turians that we find where humanity may draw its biggest strength in the military arena. In the war-games scenarios undertaken between the Hierarchy and Alliance, the Alliance has won four of the seven thus far convened. While some circles claim that it is the alliance technology which one the day, the turian generals who led the war-games have come out strongly against such notions, for one major reason._

_ Simply put, while the turians have humans outmatched in pure discipline and structured maneuvers, humanity carries the edge in initiative. Individual Alliance units, aware of the overall goal of the war-games managed to out-gambit the turian forces arrayed against them and achieve their objectives despite the turian maneuvers and discipline._

_ In conversations with **[REDACTED DUE TO SECURITY CONCERNS. LEVEL 7 ACCESS REQUIRED TO VIEW RELEVENT SECTIONS].**_

_We have thus taken to updating the common adage, "Every turian is a soldier, every asari is a diplomat, and every salarian is a spy." It must now be appended that "Every human is a general." Our species **[REDACTED DUE TO SECURITY CONCERNS. LEVEL 7 ACCESS REQUIRED TO VIEW RELEVENT SECTIONS]...**_

..._We will continue our efforts to prepare the rest of the galaxy for the return of the Reapers. And while several of our efforts may be met with skepticism by the other races, it is important that we take steps to ensure that all species survive the coming storm._

* * *

_Khar'shan Atmosphere  
November 12th, 2086_

"All right ladies and gentlemen. We will be dropping into a small military outpost on the edges of the Hegemony capital." The dry southern drawl paused for a moment before continuing, "Our mission is to ensure that the forces in this outpost are unable to counteract the main assault force once they land. As such, this is a smash and grab, we smash whatever equipment and personnel we can, and grab whatever supplies we may find useful once we're done smashing the place up. A secondary objective is liberating any slaves we come across. Command has already managed to disable the bomb-collars, all we have to do is get them out safely, so long as it doesn't threaten the primary mission."

Glancing at the data screen before him, Captain James Traynor gave a slight nod as his platoon all confirmed they had received their orders. They were currently screaming through Khar'shan's atmosphere at a nice clip of 100 meters per second, and would be making planetfall in just a few short minutes. While the namby-pamby army regulars and marines came down in their soft and comparatively comfortable drop-ships, Captain Traynor and the thousands of other Orbital Drop Troopers were riding to the surface in their tiny little drop-pods. Designed for quick strikes on those unlucky enough to incur the Alliance's wrath, they'd proven their design well enough during the assault on Beijing in World War III.

"All right then, lets all give Doc our attention as he gives us the weather on the 2's."

"Right, remember that Khar'shan's average temperature is 33º C. So watch your water supplies while we're separated from the main force. The air is thinner as well, so be careful and keep helmets on as best as you can. The area we're currently dropping in to has been experiencing high winds for the past few days, so watch your jumps. And looking at the radar, we've got a storm coming in, so Wolfe, you're going to have to be careful."

"All right then, get in one last weapons check. We'll be hitting the surface in just a minute."

Following his own advice, Captain Traynor took a look at the weapons at his disposal. In contrast to the weapons available to the fleet, ground forces had to rely on either mass-drivers or blasters. Correspondingly the Captain had an M-22 Thunder assault-blaster, a slightly modified Striker shotgun, and a Valiant pistol.

Feeling the last minute shifts brought on by his pod's evasion thrusters, James checked the rest of his equipment. Thermal and visual sensors were clear, thrusters checked out in the green, shields and barriers were at 100%, and power systems were functioning within the limits. One last glance at the map display in the pod showed him that he would be landing on the southern edge of the compound near the barracks. The rest of his platoon was scattered around the outpost, with Wolfe landing in the back corner of the vehicle bay.

And then the familiar jostle of landfall came, and the pod opened up. Already, debris from the battle raging in the space above the planet was beginning to enter the atmosphere and burn up. But there were more pressing matters. Namely the company of batarians who manned the outpost his platoon had just dropped into uninvited.

He could already see Ara's biotics flaring as she reinforced her barriers and began laying down covering fire in his direction with her SMG. Following her line of fire, James took out his assault-blaster and took aim at the pair of batarians at the corner of the barracks closest to him, placing two shots square in their chests. Looking up at the guard tower above them he saw several shots from outside the perimeter pass through the windows, followed closely by Private Michaels.

Focusing again on the corner of the barracks, three more batarians came barreling around it. And even as one lost his arm to a quickly placed singularity and the other took a blast to the chest, the third glowed blue and for a fraction of a second disappeared. Only to reappear with a staggering amount of force at James' chest causing him to drop his rifle.

He had barely registered the batarian in front of him when he noticed the bladed fist moving towards his face. Instinct kicked in immediately, ducking quickly he brought his right arm up to the vanguard's chest while simultaneously bracing himself. Quickly activating the thruster on his arm, the two opponents were thrust apart. As the batarian found himself punching the volume of space he had previously occupied, James brought his shotgun up with his left arm and let loose two blasts, shattering the vanguard's barriers and carving a hole in the unfortunate defender.

Picking up his rifle, he looked up to see two large bodies fall out of the guard tower, swiftly followed by blaster bolts towards the courtyard. Training his rifle on the corner where a now one-armed batarian was writhing on the ground, James activated his commlink.

"Ara, you've got the other approach covered, correct?"

"No Captain. Maruvi is covering that side of the barracks. What do you need me for?"

"I want you to throw a warp on the barracks' wall. We can break into the barracks at that point and work our way to the courtyard. Besides the interior will have a bit more cover than we possess out here."

"All right Captain."

Their attention was moved away from the wall as Michaels launched himself from the guard tower he had taken residence in towards their position. Followed swiftly by a loud crack and the disintegration of said tower.

"Wolfe! I thought you were taking care of any armor they had here!" James quickly shouted into the commlink.

"Well I would. But unfortunately I landed right next to a tank, and my pod door won't open sir." The lieutenant replied. "Don't worry about sending help though. I think a couple of the locals are about to give me a helping hand in getting out."

* * *

"Quickly get that tank out of the way!" Lieuntent Valkor yelled at his troops. "If we can get whatever weapon they have in that drop-pod perhaps we can turn the tide out there."

The human forces assembled outside had managed to disable the sole tank they had managed to get out of the vehicle bay quickly enough. Wasting only enough fire to render its main cannon inoperable, it had only managed to get a single shot out. Fortunately there were still five more available, and if he could use whatever they had dropped in alongside them, Valkor was sure the humans could be routed.

It was strange though. Why would they drop a piece of equipment so large straight into one of the more heavily defended areas of the outpost? That little tactical conundrum could wait however, as private Korick had managed to remove whatever had been preventing the pod door from opening. Any elation brought by that act was short-lived. As the door came crashing down, whatever was inside the pod began making its way out.

Even as the private trained his rifle on the new threat he was swept aside by the large gun barrel, crashing into the wall across the bay. And then the air warped as a powerful laser tore a hole in the most immediate target. And where once stood a tank which could match any Council vehicle, now stood a cored out shell of steel.

The batarians in the vehicle bay quckly took cover and began opening fire on the vehicle stepping out of its shelter. It looked like a krogan was the Lieutenant's first thought. It possessed two "arms", though both were apparently laser cannons as the opposite arm fired on yet another of the tanks now trying to maneuver in the vehicle bay. Moving forward he could make out the seams of its cockpit, though the whole thing was armored with no visible cameras or view ports. And even as the batarians in the bay opened fire on the beast, those damnable human shields simply absorbed the fire raining down on it.

One fool tried rushing the thing, and for a moment Valkor thought he might succeed in getting close. Until the monster turned and lifted him up on the end of its weapon barrel. The poor bastard was turned into a mist as the machine opened fire, tearing a gap in the ceiling. Apparently whoever or whatever had noticed the threat that the batarian infantry potentially posed to it, the machine started redirecting its fire on the soldiers in the bay.

Sweeping back and forth through the bay, the monster began returning fire. It appeared to have some form of physical weapons, as the batarians' barriers flared briefly before collapsing. Judging from the bursts of light on the sides of the thing's head, it was focused on forward offense.

And then it set its sights on him. He barely had time to move before a burst of light from the thing's head cannons tore through him. Turning slowly, the machine surveyed the carnage it had wrought amongst the batarians. And then it proceeded to fire several bursts of laser fire through the remaining tanks, before marching out into the outpost's courtyard.

And as darkness engulfed Lieutenant Volkar, he thought he heard over the din of battle some form of music, singing about something called Alabama. And then there was nothing.

* * *

_Hegemony Capital City  
November 24th, 2086_

**Bang**

And there was number twenty-four. The poor bastards hadn't realized that the sniper they were facing wasn't organic. Or that even with the high crosswinds and smoke brought about by the battle raging in the streets of the batarian capitol, a bullet traveling at several kilometers per second simply was not affected greatly.

As Apollo lined up another shot on the general area the batarian platoon had holed up in he made a mental note of the general progress of Alliance forces had made in the area. Sharing data between the various forces on the ground, it was clear that the push towards the Hegemony's heart was coming to a climactic close.

**Bang**

And there was number twenty-five. He hadn't even tried to run, he had simply poked his head out in a desperate attempt to determine where the sniper was. Oh well. It was Apollo's job to make sure that the Alliance soldiers on the ground made it home, not the batarian soldiers.

And at that, a Challenger Mk-10 floated onto the street and opened fire on the batarian position as the infantry supporting it made their way through the surrounding buildings.

"Apollo, how's your sector shaping out?"

"General Byron, we've managed to secure blocks B-5 through D-12. Alpha Company will be pushing forward shortly. I take it that things are progressing smoothly in other areas?"

"That would be correct. Given that this is the final major city on the planet, it would appear that this war is about to end."

**Bang**

Huh, how did I manage to hit his gun? Oh well. "I would assume that the various batarian forces which have managed to disappear into the countryside on the planet and into the Terminus Systems would disagree with that assessment General."

"You are undoubtedly correct. But our mission here has been accomplished. We will have dismantled a brutal regime, and hopefully a more peaceful batarian people will arise."

"Yes, well just don't announce our victory from one of our carriers in front of a banner. And let's hope the batarians won't become too peaceful, we still have to face the Reapers in a little under a century from now."

There were several seconds of silence, the General was either trying to figure out the historical reference or updating several other units in the battle. Taking the moment to adjust positions, Apollo found himself airborne shortly moving to another rooftop he had scoped out earlier.

"Right, Iraq." So he was looking up the reference, though he could have done both. "As for the batarians, yes we will have to rebuild them swiftly. As you know though, that's why we have avoided doing any lasting major damage to their infrastructure."

**Bang**

Hmm, unless that tank tries to fire... Ah. Well, based on the crew requirements of the standard batarian battle tank his count for the day had reached twenty-nine. "Yes, well the political realities of this war are above my paygrade. Though Publius would like to congratulate you General."

"And why is that Apollo?"

"Because while the Council is adverse to an Artificial Human serving as humanity's Councilor, your conduct, and the conduct of everyone else thus far in this war has managed to assuage their fears that we are bloodthirsty maniacs."

Landing on the rooftop, Apollo adjusted himself to provide a better firing angle on the batarian defensive line. "Furthermore, your efforts to minimize civilian casualties has played an important role in showing how we conduct war. Though the turians are apparently interested in why we don't consider this a total war situation."

"Hmmph, well pass my thanks for the compliment on to Publius for me."

"Already done, Sir."

"Command out."

**Bang**

And with the fall of that commander, the batarian forces on that street corner began to bolt. And as two more Challengers with several Wolverines in tow appeared on the scene the rest of the batarian forces began to fall back as well. Yes, this battle would end swiftly. But it was merely a precursor to the battles ahead.

Humanity had shown its strength. And while the odds were against the species of the galaxy, they would put up a fight against the Reapers.

* * *

_Codex Entry:  
Systems Alliance Ground Vehicles_

_ While the Systems Alliance uses close to a dozen ground combat vehicles none are more iconic than the Challenger battle tank, Mako APC, and Wolverine walker. All three saw heavy action during the First Contact War, showcasing the different strengths of human technology._

_ The Challenger M-10 is, as the name makes clear, the descendent of the British Challenger tank which saw use at the turn of the 21st Century on Earth. Equipped with a dual purpose 20mm cannon capable of switching between a mass-driver mode and laser mode, Vulcan HMG, and a Quantum Technologies Mk 24 Resonance Shield Generator, it is powerful on both offense and defense. Propelled by a series of repulsors it is capable of reaching 80 kilometers per hour. Alliance troops swear by its ability to hold the line in battle and can often be seen supporting the vehicles in any combat situation._

_ The Mako in contrast is something of a throwback. Unlike most other vehicles, it moves across the battlefield on six wheels. Carrying a 10 mm railgun and dual Vulcan HMGs, its true value comes in its speed and maneuverability. Capable of transporting 10 soldiers in full battle gear across the field of battle at 120 kph, while protected by the same shields as a Challenger, it can quickly outflank humanity's foes._

_ While the Mako represents a throwback to humanity's early years of mechanized warfare, the Wolverine walker is an anomaly in itself. Standing 4 meters tall on two legs, it serves as the primary drop vehicle of the ODTs due to its compact shape and variability. Its arms are detachable, allowing for a wide variety of weapons, from railguns to laser cannons to HMGs. This flexibility allows the elite forces of the Alliance to respond to whatever situation they will be dropping into._

_ Needless to say, Alliance ground vehicles follow the philosophy the rest of the Alliance military follows: Adapt and Overcome._

* * *

_Codex Entry:  
Human Inter-species Relations_

_ Despite their newcomer status, humanity has managed to make impressive strides in developing diplomatic relations with the other galactic species._

_ First and foremost among the relationships formed by humanity is that with the Quarian Republic and the Geth Consensus. Both are staunch allies of humanity, with relations between humans and quarians being extremely close. And while the Geth Consensus can be difficult to read at times, it is clear by their actions that they trust humanity deeply._

_ Relations with the Turian Hierarchy are warm. Humanity's efforts to police Citadel space alongside the traditional peacekeepers of the galaxy have resulted in the two species quickly coming to an understanding. Despite difficulties in communicating at times and differing philosophies, both species are learning to enjoy the company of each other._

_ Relations between humans and salarians are also friendly. Despite a general view of salarians as spies and manipulators, humans are generally friendly with the short-lived species. Many salarian tech companies relish the competition that human companies bring to the market, as well as the boons the technology itself has created._

_ Asari and human relations are unusual. A small group of matriarchs and their acolytes decry the heavy-handed diplomacy which humanity has shown at times and the general military capability the species possesses. However, the vast majority of asari find humanity intriguing and look forward to learning more about the newest species in the galaxy._

_ As the krogan possess no unified government, there are no official relations with the Systems Alliance. However, individual krogan tend to be treated with mild suspicion and deference by those humans they meet._

_ The volus' interactions with humanity tend to be in the financial markets. And while such competition tends to be cutthroat, this has led to mutual respect between the two species, if not friendliness._

_ Due to the isolationist tendencies of the hanar and elcor, relations with those two species are neutral. Largely because of a lack of interaction, humanity has shown its willingness to extend its hand in friendship to the two species._

_ Finally, relations with the batarian people are complicated. While many view humanity as a proud people who showed their strength and honor in freeing those in the lower castes, many others view them as dangerous tyrants willing to use force to change long-held traditions. Adding to the complicated relationship is the existence of the Hegemony Remnant in the Terminus Systems, which is largely responsible for various pirate attacks throughout the Terminus Systems and Attican Traverse._


	7. Chapter 7: Maneuvering

**Author's Note:**

**Updated the rating due to the language that appeared last chapter, and will likely appear again. There is more at the end. Thanks go to Bioware for creating the Mass Effect universe, and to the various creators whose works I reference. Enjoy.**

* * *

_Omega  
March 23rd, 2087_

Aria had to hand it to the humans. In the span of a single year they had managed to upset the galactic status quo to an incredible degree. In many ways this benefited Aria. By breaking the hold the batarians had held on the Terminus Systems, she had managed to secure a large fraction of the black market. And while the "Free Hegemony" called for all true batarian patriots to strike back against the humans, it could not claim the influence the Hegemony had before.

And humanity appeared to understand this. When the various Terminus powers had warned against any attempts to carry the war into the Terminus, the Systems Alliance merely announced that it held no such intentions. They simply stated that the Hegemony Remnant was not worth antagonizing the rest of the Terminus over.

There was a degree of danger in that. While they weren't a threat now, that wasn't to say that the Hegemony would not rise again. And while the latest Citadel species might not be concerned about it at the moment, the rest of the Terminus was. And so, like the other various powers on the edge of the galaxy, Omega found itself expanding its military might.

Some powers found themselves simply building more ships, training more troops, and building more equipment based off element zero. Others were working to make deals with each other and the human traders who braved the Terminus to share technology. And a very small portion were actively attempting to steal what they could from the humans.

But because Omega served as the crossroads for the Terminus, Aria had managed to secure something even better. Even as the Systems Alliance had worked its way into the rest of the Citadel Space, various illegitimate human enterprises had found their way to Omega. And while some had needed the rules of Omega explained to them, others had found it easier to simply give some tribute to Omega's queen.

Which was why the new Omega fleet would have one of the first Terminus cruisers equipped with the humans' blaster and shield technology. She had not managed to acquire a working hyperdrive, but for the purpose of defending her station that was unnecessary. When you included the improvements the station's defense systems were undergoing Aria was confident that not even the Remnant with its fleet could take the station.

Better still, some of the humans which had taken residence on the station had chosen to seek her employ. And so Aria found herself with several new guards who not only knew how to point and shoot, but also how to work the new technology. That in itself was worth the occasional headache their antics caused.

Because while she didn't know if it was something in their genes or if it was cultural, but every human she had talked to or employed seemed to take pleasure in being as obnoxiously obtuse as possible. Oh they were helpful and direct when it was necessary, but it seemed at every other time that they took some perverse pleasure in driving her "up the wall" as some of them said.

And as she looked at the expression of the guard now approaching her with her drink, she knew that this was likely going to be one of those times.

"What is it Johnathan?"

"Well, this would be the margarita you asked for ma'am."

She really shouldn't put up with the jokes. Fortunately they were adept at figuring out when it was wise to stop.

"Yes Johnathan. I can see quite clearly what you are carrying." putting as much menace into her voice as she felt was necessary she continued, "What I want to know is why you have that look on your face."

"Ah. I see you're not in the mood." Putting the drink down before her, she picked it up and took a sip as the human moved on, "Well it appears that someone would like to speak with you."

"And how do you know this?" She hadn't seen him converse with anyone down on the floor, though she had noticed several newcomers to Afterlife.

"Do you see the human in the suit down below?" Nodding towards the floor, she could make out an individual who quite clearly did not belong. Remarkably well dressed in something she would consider old-fashioned, the human had what she had heard referred to as "sandy-blond" hair. However, there was the unmistakable aura of danger about him.

"Yes. I suppose he's some sort of businessman? Probably here to form some sort of _legitimate_ trade agreement?"

"Nothing of the sort. He's Alliance Intelligence."

If looks could kill, Johnathan would be hanging by a thread. "And how, pray tell, do you know this?"

At least he had the decency to look properly chastened. "Ah, well it was his drink ma'am."

"His. Drink." Narrowing her eyes she could feel the young human's anxiety at her increasingly displeased attention. "And just why is it that you can tell that he is from Alliance Intelligence from his drink?"

"Well, given his accent and the way he asked for the martini to be made, I operated on a hunch and asked the bouncer for more information. He gave me the name I was expecting. I approached him, asked about his suit, and he requested a meeting. And, well, here I am."

"And you expect me to believe that Alliance Intelligence, a group which operates on the level of the STG, would operate so blatantly in my territory?"

"Ma'am, to be honest, if I weren't a human I wouldn't have made the connection. I personally would recommend you meet him. I doubt he's here to cause trouble. Alliance Intelligence doesn't really go for assassination or black-ops against independent polities. The Alliance finds that such undercover operations tend to cause more headaches than they're worth."

"And you know all of this how?" Aria was beginning to become very suspicious of the best human guard she had.

"Alliance Intelligence doesn't exactly hide. Yes they'll sneak around and snoop for whatever data they can get, but their general mandate is well known to humanity." Shrugging his shoulders, Johnathan continued, "I'm not a patriot ma'am. I found the Alliance too rule bound. I'm no ConFed, or else I wouldn't be here working for you. I just want to live my life."

And there was the honesty that Aria like about humans. Most didn't try to hide who they were, and she could respect that, even if it came with a large amount of snark.

"Well then, go bring him to me."

As she waited, Aria went through the possible reasons for the Alliance's interest in Omega. The element zero reserves were out, human tech simply did not rely on it as much if at all. Besides, they had over a hundred worlds, surely several had significant reserves. A buffer against the new hegemony? If they were smart they would know that wasn't an option for her, nobody used Aria and lived. Perhaps a request to not trade any of the technology she had already gotten. But thus far they had made no indications that they didn't want anyone else to have it so long as they payed for it.

That was the trouble with dealing with a new race. Too many unknowns.

"Aria" Interrupting her thoughts, she turned to view the men before her, "This would be Agent James Bond, of Alliance Intelligence. Mr Bond, Aria T'Loak."

"I'll assume that isn't your real name Mr Bond?" Gesturing towards a seat on the couch, Aria watched the Alliance official settle down for business.

"Hah, just as Aria T'Loak likely isn't yours." Grinning the man took a sip from his drink before continuing, "Though if you don't mind, I'd like to skip the pleasantries and get down to business. I have to be on Illium in a few days."

"Just as well. I don't like having unscheduled meetings Mr Bond. So why is it that you have come to my station?"

"Simply put, the Alliance would like some information that you are in a unique position to provide." Pausing, the man pressed forward, "No one, except for the Collectors, has ever traversed the Omega-4 relay. We would like to be informed when they pass through, and what deals they are looking for, should you be in a position to learn that information."

That was interesting. "And why are the Collectors of such concern to the Alliance? Surely your people must know something about them."

Frowning the gentleman gave her a glance which told her that this was not a welcome line of conversation. Oh well.

"Yes, we have ascertained some details about them. However, we are more concerned with their movements as of right now. In exchange for this information, the Alliance is willing to forward you a sum of credits, as well as provide a secure means of communication."

That was a cause for concern. If the Alliance was so interested in the Collectors that they were willing to give technology away for information on them it was possible the enigmatic species was a danger to her here in Omega.

"Perhaps you could elaborate on what it is you would be providing should I agree to share any information on the Collectors' movements."

"Certainly. Alliance Intelligence is willing to offer roughly 1 million credits in advance to secure your cooperation. This is in addition to a military grade subspace comm-system which will allow you to contact us without the possibility of other parties listening in. Finally, in order to watch the Omega-4 relay for Collector movements, we will provide two of our older Tartarus spy probes."

That was an impressive offer. And it only reinforced her impression that the Collectors were something that seriously concerned humanity. And if the Collector's were that dangerous, Aria now had another reason to improve her ability to defend Omega.

"I assume that there will be payments for any information provided that is confirmed as accurate?"

"Of course."

"While all of this is acceptable, in order for me to agree to this deal I would require one more item. A working hyperdrive system."

That caused a subtle reaction. Leaning back the Alliance agent put his hand to his chin in what Aria had come to understand was a sign the human in question was considering it. Johnathan was watching the agent with a curious expression on his face. Throughout the exchange he hadn't been surprised by what was being talked about once. It was as if he expected it. Hmmm.

"I believe that will be acceptable to my superiors." Turning to face the human official, Aria gestured for him to continue. "Of course there won't be any formal paperwork. You'll receive the agreed upon items by next month, and the credits will be deposited by tomorrow evening."

"It was a pleasure doing business with you Ms T'Loak." Standing, the agent picked his drink, and walked away.

As her guards watched the man leave, Aria had three things on her mind. The first was that fortifying her little empire here had just become a bit easier. The second was that her position here on Omega had just become more tenuous if the Collector's were as big a threat as the Alliance seemed to be. The third and final thought had to do with just what humanity knew about the galaxy.

And to start unraveling that particular mystery, Aria was going to have to lean quite heavily on those humans she had at her disposal. Ah well, that was one of the difficulties of ruling an independent polity.

"Johnathan, I have some questions for you..."

* * *

_Citadel Tower  
March 25th, 2087_

"So that wraps up the situation in the former Hegemony. Obviously we're doing everything in our power to ensure that a new dictatorship doesn't rise up, but it will take some time before the batarians have a stable government. Any questions?"

Looking at his three colleagues, Publius gestured that he was done. While he could work through the various holographic displays already put in place, he found that physically being somewhere made things much easier. Especially with the asari.

"No, your fleets are handling the patrols of batarian territory well enough." Turvic was perhaps the friendliest of the other councilors, no doubt because the turians and humanity shared so much in common. "How are things going with your colonization efforts in the Traverse?"

"Reasonably well. We had located several planets near Relay 314 that were habitable to humanity prior to contact with the greater galaxy. We're currently trying to determine which would be best to colonize given the locations of nearby secondary relays."

Pausing to look at his omnitool, which was a rather ingenious device he had to admit, he called up the latest information on that region's surveys.

"We have also begun colonization of what we call the Exodus Cluster. It directly connects to Arcturus, and as such we'll be building a major naval hub there. In fact we'll probably begin construction of another fleet or two in order bolster patrols throughout the Traverse. Two worlds are of particular interest to us, we're calling the first Eden Prime and the second will be Terra Nova."

"Any particular reason for the two names?" Hallis spoke up next, he'd been the most interested in human culture and especially the naming conventions used by humanity for its colonies and ships, "I understand the religious reference, but Terra Nova seems unusual."

"Terra Nova means 'New Earth' in Latin, one of our older dialects. It seems to be particularly rich in some useful minerals, and with the possibility of us expanding our fleet that will be important. Eden Prime is named as such because it is incredibly fertile, responding very well to most of our crops. Apparently the soil has just the right fix of nutrients to make it a veritable bread-basket world."

"If I'm correct, there is evidence that someone visited that world almost a thousand years ago." Meera, the councilor most suspicious of him was next to speak up, "I don't suppose your creators had anything to do with that?"

"Eden Prime was mentioned as being a prothean world in our beacon. When Altera began exploring the galaxy we sent several ships there to investigate." Not the whole truth, but it was enough, "We found some minor relics, but we caught wind of a patrol making its way towards the system and had to leave."

The mention of prothean relics caught the others' attentions, with Hallis being the first to speak, "And what did you find exactly?"

"Nothing significant, some weapons and a piece of armor. Nothing incredibly important or useful." Not quite a lie, but enough truth to prevent further questioning.

"Well, that is disappointing. I don't suppose you found anything to explain why the protheans disappeared?"

That was a dangerous question. One that wasn't going to be answered truthfully while the Citadel was still under Reaper control.

"No, we have our theories. War is the most likely answer, but nothing conclusive at this time."

Turvic looked up from a report he had been reading on human exploration in the Traverse, "You are undergoing some form of analysis on Relay 314? What are you trying to do?"

"Don't worry, we aren't going to be activating it at this time. We've been investigating the Relays for a while now and discovered something interesting. As you know Primary relays operate in pairs, only able to send objects between one another, whereas secondary relays are able to send objects to any other relay in a certain volume of space."

"A while ago we started working on how to determine where a primary relay could send something. Obviously with hyperdrive we could then send a probe to that location and determine whether it was safe to open the Relay or not. Well, in the past 50 years or so we managed to make a breakthrough, and are now able to determine the rough volume of space a relay's partner will send an object."

Though not with the Citadel, it was proving a much tougher nut to crack than humanity had even expected. Otherwise we could simply send a few overloaded subspace cores and wrap things up nice and tight. Not that these three need to concern themselves with that at the moment.

Though what he had revealed did grasp their attention quite magnificently.

"That would make exploring the rest of the galaxy if not safer, then at least significantly easier!" Meera exclaimed excitedly.

"Very interesting. It must require some form of analysis of the relay itself?" Hallis continued. "Though you said the rough volume of space, how large are we talking about?"

"It is very rough. Approximately a volume of half a million cubic light-years. Very much a needle-in-the-haystack scenario as we'd say. And yes, it requires analyzing both the basic code of that individual Relay and the dark energy signature in its localized region of space. Given the amount of time many of the Relays have been inactive, analyzing that signature is incredibly difficult."

"Still, such research could lead to further understanding of how the Relays work. Very useful information."

"Indeed. Now, there is one topic I would like to broach with you. The matter of the Spectre candidates we put forth. I understand that you were responsible for disseminating the information to Spectres for their perusal Turvic?"

"Yes. And the various Spectres we provided with the dossiers focused in on five individuals in particular. There are some concerns about one, however should the candidate prove his capabilities, then those concerns won't matter."

"Excellent. I assume then that we can recall the five candidates to the Citadel for initial testing?"

Meera chose to respond to that. "You certainly can. I too have concerns, but I am willing to put them aside if the candidates prove their ability. Though there will be a period of time where they will be assigned on missions with a senior Spectre."

"Very well then, I'll have high-command have them sent here as soon as possible. Is there anything else that needs to be discussed?"

* * *

**Author's Notes Part Two:**

**First things first, Aria is difficult to write properly, and I'm pretty sure I didn't do a great job. It was brought up before how humanity has reacted to the news that the Apocalypse is on a schedule and how they're covering up their knowledge, part of it is humor. Mostly humans throw out a hundred different answers and are just snarky as all get out. The galaxy is quickly becoming convinced that we're just plain weird. Funny and mostly safe unless provoked, but weird nonetheless. **

**Also, Javik is in stasis. He shall appear, but not for a while now.**

**As for the yahg and the drell. First off, I'm not sure how I'll deal with the yahg. To be honest, I'd kinda forgotten about them. But I don't think first contact with them will go as it did in the original timeline. I personally like how Chemiclord treats them in Mass Effect: Pieces (which I recommend). But they won't play a major role. Probably.**

The drell have already been evacuated from Rakhana, in fact they were evacuated in the 1980s at some point. Humanity is working on some medical treatments for them, but that won't be mentioned for a while. And there will probably be aid missions sent to Rakhana with the terraforming tech utilized in some capacity to restore the planet to a certain degree, much like how it is being used on Earth.

**The next couple of chapters will be longer. We'll be going into more depth with a couple of recurring characters and I'll be explaining more of how human politics, society, and technology has developed in the intervening years. No Shepard yet though. He won't be among the first human Spectres.**

**Until next time. Please review, favorite, follow.**


	8. Chapter 8: Technical Details

**Author's Note:**

**Sorry it's been a while. This chapter elaborates on some elements of human politics and the technical capabilities of humanity, so I had to check over some things to make sure they were consistent.**

**Also, to clear up some confusion, the drell situation is unchanged from canon. I was getting at the fact that the drell in canon were saved by the hanar in the 1980s, therefore humanity could not interfere. Any assistance provided to the drell and Rakhana will occur in the future.**

**So without much further ado, I don't own the ME universe. Bioware does, and I thank them for creating it. I also thank the creators who I provided the occasional shout-out to for their creations.**

* * *

_Citadel Security Headquarters  
April 2nd, 2087_

"So there we are, in the middle of the base, and the ConFed commander rushes out of his quarters in his pants! Needless to say he was both embarrassed and confused when he realized who we were and why all the guards were unconscious on the floor."

That elicited laughter from both the story teller and the only human female in the room. Though one of their companions was chuckling slightly it appeared.

"I don't understand. What's so funny about the guy being in his pants?" The strange drawl was amusing in its own way, but the confusion was clearly from some slight cultural difference than from any lack of intelligence.

Pausing to catch his breath the storyteller explained with a grin, "Whereas you uncultured Americans use the term pants to refer to the outer-garments which cover our legs, those of us who learned to speak English properly understand they refer to one's undergarments."

"Ha, real funny there Marcus. Quite the laugh. Remind me again who developed electro-gravitics? Oh, and who provided the strongest base of support for the Alliance in its early days?"

"I do believe Jim, that would be you Americans on both counts, but recall that I am not from Great Britain proper, unlike the good lieutenant. I simply had a proper education."

Avictus wondered if all humans got along like this. It would certainly explain why they seemed to baffle every other species they encountered. Ah well, that was another question to add on to the growing list they had.

Turning to his companions, Avictus motioned for them to enter the room the human Spectre candidates currently occupied.

As the door opened with the characteristic whoosh that all doors on the Citadel showed, the five humans inside turned and looked at the new arrivals.

"It appears lady and gentlemen that we have some guests. Or perhaps they are our hosts."

Avictus gave the turian equivalent of a grin, "Indeed we are, though before we get to the purpose of our meeting, we should wait for your Counselor to arrive."

The quiet human, Apollo, spoke up at that point, "He's been delayed by a meeting with the hanar ambassador, though he'll be able to appear through my holographic suite."

At that moment the figure before them disappeared, before it reappeared once again with the human Counselor by its side.

Avictus' companion Badau couldn't let that go without comment, "I doubt that will cease to be disturbing."

Turning to face the cadre of Spectres, the human Councilor Publius chided, "I believe you'll find yourselves eventually coming to terms with it. But that's neither here nor there."

"Well lady and gentlemen, I'm sure you've discussed why you're here before you started swapping war stories." Turning to face the humans, all five nodded their heads. "As you probably guessed, you have been selected as humanity's first set of Spectre candidates. You are among the best humanity has to offer. As such, you will be equipped with the best humanity has to offer."

The holographic image shifted to show the video feed from a nearby storeroom, where several suits of armor and an impressive selection of weapons was to be found. "Alliance Command has seen fit to grant you access to Project Valkyrie equipment." That pronouncement was met by some form of high-pitched noise from two of the humans, but it was stifled with a wave of the Councilor's hand. "I'm certain that you'll make good use of it, when appropriate."

At that point several C-Sec officers entered the storeroom and began moving the equipment. "You'll be able to suit up in the room you're in currently. I understand that the Spectres here would like to run you through C-Sec's training course, just to get a feel for your individual styles."

"I don't need to remind you what is at stake here. Do your best. And congratulations." And with that the holographic display shifted once more to only show Apollo.

At that moment the first C-sec officer wheeling the new sets of armor entered the room. And while each of the humans eyed it greedily, Avictus decided that now would be the best time to get introductions out of the way.

"Before we get to see you geared up and in action, perhaps it would be best to introduce ourselves?" Once again the humans focused on the Spectres before them. "I am Avictus Aurensus, and I will be the one overseeing your Spectre candidacies in a general capacity."

"Next to me is Badau Jon Vadoo." The pale salarian nodded in greetings at his introduction. "He is perhaps the most gifted of the current Spectres in the realm of cyber-warfare and espionage, and is former STG."

"Though I'm sure that your companion Apollo may take that title from me should he become a Spectre" the salarian added with a smile.

"Finally, let me introduce Fiora D'Tonis. One of the strongest biotics I have ever met. She is also very good at wheedling information out of those who aren't inclined to give it out freely."

The sole asari in the room gave a curt nod. "I look forward to working with you all. Hopefully your skill is able to match the edge your technology gives you."

At that, the apparent leader of the group of humans stepped forward. He was probably the thinnest of the three organic human males, but it was a lithe form. His dark hair was longer than what most human males seemed to possess, with a trim beard framing his mouth. All of it seemed to frame the slightly angular, pale face drawing attention to the strangely expressive blue eyes.

"I'm sure you already know all about us, but let me begin. I am Captain Marcus Cole. My specialty is in close-quarters combat, which given my capabilities and training in the vanguard biotic specialization makes considerable sense. I hail from the colony of Chiron, the first of humanity's colonies in the galaxy, and was part of the diplomatic delegation to the Citadel a year prior."

Next to step forward was the one they had called Jim. Larger than the other two, he carried a burly sense to him. Almost like a Krogan, if a bit more peaceful. He too had longer brown hair and a beard, though the rugged face and brown eyes did not convey the same warmth that Marcus possessed.

"Captain James Traynor at your service, formerly of the 101st Orbital Drop Troopers. I'm probably the heavy hitter of the group, with a focus on front-line combat. Probably better with a gun than old Marcus here, but seeing as how I hail from Alabama in the old United States, that's to be expected."

Next was the lone female. Short and with longer blonde hair, she had a pair of green eyes that seemed to follow everything in the room at once.

"Lieutenant Jennifer Smith by your leave. I'm from the territory of Great Britain, specifically Cardiff. As for my specialty, I followed the sentinel biotic specialization. I'm a bit more technically inclined than the good Captain Cole here, but I focus on the more long-ranged biotic powers."

Leaning against the far wall, the redheaded Apollo was the next to speak. "As you're aware, I'm Specialist Apollo Laurensis. I'm from the Alteran colony of Caprica, one the first in the Alteran Republic. I'm a sniper by training, though I am a capable infiltrator. The holographic suite probably helps with that."

Finally the largest figure in the room spoke up. Almost as tall as Avictus, and with a light brown skin tone, he was an intimidating figure. Chiseled would be the word to describe his facial features as well. His eyes were smaller than the others, but they had a strange sort of compassion to them.

"Lieutenant Jorge Maxwell, hailing from Altera proper. I'm an engineer, so if its a piece of tech or something that needs fixing, I'm your man. I tend to prefer the heavier weapons in the field, all the better to cause a little chaos in the enemy's lines with the turrets and tech I deploy."

Avictus had to hand it to humanity, they had chosen a wide variety of soldiers for their initial Spectre candidates. Now to see how they interacted with the old guard.

"Very well then, lets get you suited up to run the course. Though I have to ask, what was that sound you and Jim made earlier when the Councilor announced where your new equipment came from Marcus?"

Even as they went to inspect the armor that had been laid out before them, Marcus turned to answer "You mean whistling? It's just something most humans can do. Generally we do it when we're surprised or impressed."

Badau, who was inspecting the equipment even as the five humans began putting it on and running various checks on it asked the next logical question, "Why would you be impressed that you were getting new equipment? Or was it the source that was a surprise."

Jorge answered that question. "Project Valkyrie is one of the Alliance's weapons programs." Snatching a gauntlet from Badau, he continued, "Its goal is to integrate various electro-gravitic and element-zero technologies. Basically take the best of both worlds, while figuring out why our tech responds so poorly to element-zero."

"We weren't sure they had made significant progress in Valkyrie, which is probably why the Captains were surprised," Jennifer stated while running some diagnostics on what appeared to be a human version of the omni-tool. "Most of our armor uses kinetic barriers to some extent, mostly because kinetic-barriers have the least impact on shield strength."

Avictus knew that humans didn't use element-zero extensively due to the way it interacted with the rest of their technology, but it was surprising to see where it was used. "And why is that?"

Again Jorge answered, "That depends on what you mean. Why does our technology have trouble dealing with element-zero? You'd have to ask a physicist that question, though my understanding is that even they don't understand it fully."

Frowning as he inspected some piece of what appeared to be his armor's shield generator system, Jorge continued, "As to why barriers don't have that big an impact, I believe it has to do with the resonance pattern our energy shielding forms." With that Jorge looked up with an almost apologetic grin on his face.

"Though that sentence was probably meaningless if you haven't had a basic primer in electro-gravitics. Right, to start, remember your electromagnetism. Electric charges and magnetic dipoles generate electric and magnetic fields. The same thing occurs with mass and gravitational fields. Now of course, these types of fields aren't exactly real. They are how we describe how energy flows from one location to another when under the effect of mass or electricity. But for the purposes of this explanation field terminology is useful."

Pausing Jorge turned to Apollo. "Perhaps you can throw up a holographic display of an energy shield's field lines."

Simply nodding as he inspected one of the pistols that had brought in, Apollo made a small motion with his free hand. Shortly afterward a holographic image of a suit of armor appeared in the middle of the room surrounded by a series of lines."

"Right, as you can see, here we have a piece of armor. Our shields work by forming a barrier of energy around the object we wish to protect. To accomplish this, we essentially fold the electromagnetic and gravitational field lines generated by our shield generators into one another at the desired distance. What occurs is a buildup of energy at specific frequencies and energy levels that prevents objects with similar levels of energy from penetrating. The best analogue would be from quantum mechanics: the infinite well. Obviously this setup is not perfect, so our equipment tends to require better electric shielding than yours does as a result."

Gesturing towards the various pieces of armament and armor being investigated by his companions, Jorge continued with the explanation, "The interesting thing is what shield frequencies block what. For example: kinetic shielding has a similar frequency to the type of shield we use to disperse thermal energy. As such we are unable to operate those together as they interfere and reduce the efficiency and strength of both fields. Kinetic shielding and energy shielding however do not operate in a similar range, and therefore can safely be used with one another. Some frequencies block energy transfer in both directions, some only in one."

Badau, seemingly finished inspecting the various pieces, chimed in, "Hmm. So your ships must constantly balance what weapons and defenses they are using at any one time? I can see why your military prides itself on flexibility then."

Smiling, Jorge nodded, "Precisely. There are limits of course, especially with our weapons. Our blasters' hardware is designed to operate optimally at certain frequencies. Changing the frequency a blaster fires at can be done, but oftentimes it comes with some form of drawback. Usually decreased range or increased heat generation. Though all blasters are able to switch between a more potent damaging mode and a stun setting similar to a taser."

Fiora chose to interject at that moment, "So why then do barriers not have the same impact that other uses of element-zero do?"

"The simple answer is that barriers are static in nature. The use of eezo in generating the barriers causes some localized issues around the emitters, which is most noticeable on our powered armor. The more active uses of eezo however create shifting dark energy fields which create problems for our systems."

Fiora frowned, "So why use barriers if they even have an impact on the rest of your equipment? It seems like that introduces a weakness your opponents can exploit."

James chose to respond to that question while stripping apart one of the new assault rifles, "The thing with barriers is that because they create what is essentially a wall, they cover a weakness our shields possess. Basically because our shields create a shifting energy barrier thing, there are weak points that form. We call them resonance nodes. A well placed or simply lucky shot can penetrate at that location. Barriers provide a defense against that."

"I take it you went through a great deal of testing on this matter?" Badau once again chimed in while looking at one of the pistols, "This is apparently something you've given thought to."

Marcus spoke up for the first time since they had started to work through their equipment, "A bit of testing in labs is responsible for it. But the last major war we experienced on Earth also filled in some details."

That was something Avictus had become interested in. Humanity had fought a civil war similar to the Unification War the turians had experienced before discovering the rest of the galaxy.

"I've heard a lot about this World War, but never any real details. What exactly happened? I've been to Earth, and it doesn't appear to have caused any significant damage."

Marcus again took the lead in explaining what had occurred, "Well it wasn't our most damaging war. It wasn't a triumphant struggle of good versus evil like the second World War was, but it was ideological in nature."

Pausing his activity, Marcus gave the story his full attention, "The Alliance had been split into two factions once we had discovered that other civilizations existed in the greater galaxy, and that the rest of you used element-zero which has some considerable weaknesses. The first faction, dominated by the old western powers of Earth and their allies across Earth saw peaceful coexistence as the best path forward."

"The second faction was the Confederates. Despite the name, they wanted to establish an "Empire of Man" across the galaxy. They were led primarily by the People's Republic of China, which was essentially an oligarchy that had been positioning itself as an alternative to the form of democracy practiced by the rest of the alliance."

"Surely they didn't believe they could succeed?" Avictus knew that humanity had some skill at war. But to take on the entire galaxy? Only the Krogan and Rachni had managed that through their insane population growth. "Yes you had a minor technological edge, but they must have known it would be insane to try."

Marcus gave a humorless laugh at that statement, "The colonies and the rest of the Alliance understood that very well. But the Confederate leadership had convinced itself that not only could it take on the rest of the Alliance, but that the other races would fall to us once they had established a firm grasp on humanity."

"In the early days of the Alliance they couldn't make a move against the rest of humanity. Our economies were intertwined with one another to such an extent that war was practically unthinkable. Furthermore, the western powers that made up the majority of the military strength of the Alliance also held onto the schematics for much of the electro-gravitic technology that had already been developed."

"But as the decades passed they slowly managed to make it so that their economies wouldn't simply fall apart if war was declared. It didn't help that with an increase in mechanization of the work force and the rapid development of the colonies that the rest of the world became more self-sufficient. Throughout this time, what would become the Confederate leadership used the Alliance fleet as a test-bed for training their own forces and figuring out how things would shake out. Not to mention the possible saboteurs."

Shaking his head with a laugh, Marcus continued, "Of course, that's where things fell apart for them. Many of their double-agents turned on them. Most were simply discovered and drummed out or assigned to non-critical positions, but the rest were turned. So when the first strike came, the rest of the Alliance was prepared."

"June 2nd, 2041 was when they chose to attack, resulting in the Battle of Earth. The Alliance at the time possessed two fleets, though the largest class of ship we had operational at the time was the battle-cruiser. The _Einstein_ was still in dock, though it was going through its final checks and so was able to launch its fighter squadrons. So all told, the Alliance had about 150 ships available."

Jennifer, having managed to get the majority of her armor and gear on, took over the explanation, "What the Confederate leadership did not count on was the Alliance fleet knowing when the attack would come. They had managed to secretly build a fleet out in the asteroid belt and man it at the same time, or at least they thought it was a secret. We knew they were building something out there, but didn't know precisely what or where."

"Well when then chose to attack, both Alliance fleets were in orbit above Earth. The admiral of the Confederate fleet actually had a son aboard one of the Alliance ships who was supposed to be a saboteur. Well, turns out he had been turned early on by the ship's captain. He managed to talk his father into surrendering, and most of the Confederate fleet did as well."

"What nobody had counted on was a _second _Confederate fleet, this time based on element-zero. You see, while ships utilizing hyperdrive can be tracked through hyperspace by the 'wake' they create in hyperspace, eezo-core ships cannot be tracked. And with the Centauri system nearby being a major source of element-zero, they had managed to build an impressive fleet. Though nothing that could compare to something the turians or asari would be able to make."

"But this is where we found out just how much ships that used both eezo and electro-gravitics were affected by dark-energy. When the second Confederate fleet began opening fire, their shield strength dropped almost immediately, both energy and kinetic shielding. So when the Alliance fleet returned fire, a sizable chunk of that Confederate fleet was rendered inoperable."

"The battle lasted around three hours. Where the Confederates had started the battle with around 125 ships, only 10 made it away from Earth. The Alliance in comparison gained 25 ships from those that had surrendered, further strengthening the Alliance fleet's hold of the space over Earth."

Shrugging her shoulders, Jennifer gave a small smile, "The war proceeded much as could be expected. The bases that had constructed the Confederate fleets were destroyed, and Earth was blockaded. The colonies backed the Alliance fully, and so those ten ships that managed to escape couldn't find any safe harbor. With the orbitals controlled by the Alliance, the Confederate ground attacks stalled and were picked off before they could make any major headway."

"The war lasted about 3 years nevertheless, mostly because the Alliance didn't adopt a total war posture. And because of the way most of the Confederate governments were spread about, the Alliance had to make sure that several loyalist governments were not invaded. Fighting in South America lasted for around a year and Africa took about six months to fully secure. Asia was the most difficult continent to take back, even though India and Japan had remained loyal, simply because China was so large and powerful at the time."

"Ultimately the Alliance had to turn several Ion Cannons, the main gun our battle-cruisers and dreadnaughts carry, against several military bases. With those assets terminated we were able to attack Beijing and bring about an end to the war."

James decided to chime in, "The war actually changed how the Alliance operated. Because it came about in part due to several nations using their own military forces, countries on Earth no longer maintain control of their military forces. National sovereignty is effectively a thing of the past. Earth's exemptions from the initial Alliance charter were revoked, and in the process the United Nations was turned into the official governing body of Earth. Earth is now just another world in the Alliance, though it does have a few special conditions being the homeworld"

"Not all of this was well received mind you. A lot of groups found this abhorrent. Socialists, anarchists, libertarians all decried the "New World Order". Fortunately because of the hyperdrive technology, most were able to leave Alliance space. A few groups remained, though we're seeing them beginning to settle in the Terminus Systems and Attican Traverse."

Fiora perked up at the mention of these rogue colonies. "Where did those initial colony ships go? They must not have settled near in any systems near the Alliance if they didn't want to be forced into it simply through expansion."

Apollo answered that question, " Most of the colony ships headed towards the several of the dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. Their journey should take about 20-30 years given the speed of their hyperdrives. We believe another few are en-route to the Andromeda Galaxy. Those ones will take around 150 years. They should have the supplies to reach their destinations, but we certainly hope they don't wind up annoying the neighbors."

Avictus noticed both Badau and Fiora frowning. Given what he knew of the speeds hyperdrive could attain, those time-estimates were far too short.

But before he could bring it up, Badau beat him to it. "I'm sorry, but your ships aren't capable of the speeds necessary to make such trips in such a short period of time. So how is that possible?"

Jorge chuckled even as he picked over the rather large light machine gun in front of him, "You already know that dark-energy has a negative effect on our technology. It's the answer to that conundrum as well. Our ships' travel speeds in the galaxy are limited because of the fact that other civilizations in the past used element-zero extensively. Once ships escape the galaxy, their speed increases by a significant factor."

"Surely the protheans didn't cause that much of a problem for the rest of the galaxy by creating element-zero technology. Our estimates say that they couldn't have explored more than 20% of the galaxy by the height of their empire." Avictus said with a frown.

And then he noticed how tense all of the humans had gotten. Each one was looking at the others, almost waiting for the others to explain. He'd seen the behavior before, always when the subject of the protheans or the origins of their technology came up.

It was Apollo who answered the question, if reluctantly, "We think that other civilizations predated the protheans, and that they too used element-zero technology." Pausing, he continued, "We aren't sure however. Though it would go a long way towards explaining why there is so much dark-energy build-up in the galaxy."

Interrupting, Marcus clapped his hands together with a loud bang and several sparks from the thrusters mounted on his gauntlets, "Right then. It looks like we're all suited up and sufficiently satisfied with our equipment. How about we go and test it out then, hrm? Perhaps we'll even deign to show off our combat skills a little bit."

* * *

Fiora had to admit that humans certainly could talk. She had thought that salarians could talk someone to death, but she was now starting to think humans could give them a run for their money. In the ten minutes it took to reach the C-Sec training course, the group of humans had managed to cover no less than six different subjects and express almost three times as many opinions as there were members of the group.

It was impressive.

Fortunately it all ended when the entourage reached the training course, meeting up with the other two Spectres who would be overseeing the human candidates. Harra T'Velos was probably most similar to the only female human in the group with her specialization and would be overseeing that bubbling personality. She had, along with Korvin Facinic, been overseeing the course setup.

First to go through would be the young lieutenant herself. There had been some jockeying for the honor, though all had agreed that Traynor would go last. Apparently no one trusted him not to simply blow up the course before the others had a chance to run through it.

It was a simple setup. Four rooms had been arranged. The first had several turrets in-place defending the entrance to the rest of the complex. The next room had roughly a dozen mech guards in place, patrolling through crates and other assorted obstacles. The third and fourth rooms had similar setups in place, though they also contained several turrets as well,though the fourth contained a special holographic target that the subject had to eliminate in order to complete the course. It wasn't a particularly difficult course, but it would be useful to see how each human operated in a combat situation.

"So I assume that the Confederates no longer exist as a viable organization?" Avictus appeared to be returning to an earlier topic, probably trying to determine just how divided humanity was.

It was Marcus who answered yet again, "Actually there are a whole host of splinter cells throughout human space. Mostly on frontier worlds or worlds that have not been colonized. That op I was describing before you met with us took place about four years ago in fact."

"So is your government not taking measures to ensure that the Confederates don't regain their strength?"

"It'd be more accurate to say they make up a small minority of humans at best. Obviously some will always sympathize with their goals, but most humans don't. Even Terra Firma, which advocates an isolationist position, doesn't support the Confederate ideal of a human run galaxy."

And there was the lieutenant entering the course. Wisely taking cover immediately, she lobbed some sort of device into the center of the room. The turrets which were guarding that particular location locked on to the device momentarily before resuming their scans of the room.

Which turned out to be a mistake when Jennifer took out one turrets shields with some form of EMP grenade and followed that attack with a warp field, rendering the turret inoperable. Shifting positions, she opened fire on the second turret with her pistol, reducing its shield strength significantly as well, and scoring some minor damage to its armor in the process.

The other turret however had managed to lock onto her position and was beginning to pour fire onto it slowly but surely. The lieutenant responded by throwing a singularity into position close to its line of fire, managing to redirect the fire.

"It would appear that despite the fact your species doesn't use element-zero extensively you have managed to create some impressive biotics," Harra observed.

"Well, our nano-technology aids us in that matter to an extent." Marcus responded with a smile as the lieutenant fired off a shockwave at the offensive turret before disabling the other turret and making her way towards the exit.

"I assume it fills the role of a biotic amp?" Harra pressed further.

"To an extent yes. Us human biotics have to have a bit of additional cybernetics to make our abilities useful on the battlefield, but the medical nanites do regulate the element-zero a fair bit as well."

Chiming in with a smile, though whether it was due to the fact that Jennifer had managed to enter the second room by hacking the door or with the upcoming cracks Fiora had no idea, James continued. "Though given how much more you have to eat because of your biotics, its important that we get some use out of you."

"Yes well, given how the caloric intake of all humanity has increased with our utilization of nano-technology, it would be nice if you did not begrudge us an extra thousand calories."

Badau looked away from the sight of three mechs being torn apart by a singularity at that revelation, "I had wondered how the nanites power themselves. The most obvious solution seemed to be using the body's natural thermal energy."

Wincing at the sight of a warp-shockwave combo eviscerating a small cluster of mechs, Jorge took up the technical explanation yet again. "Yeah, the nanites use the thermal energy our bodies produce in order to run. An unanticipated side-effect was that we now need about 50% more calories to live. Biotics need even more food, upping their calorie requirements to around 6000 a day to maintain their weight. And given the rate at which Jen is tearing through these mechs, I better go get ready for my turn."

"That's why you see so many farm worlds in human space," James elaborated, "We eat a lot. We can reduce the amount we need to eat by running our nanites in emergency mode, but for us soldiers that's not a good option. Though with the new crops we keep developing with genetic technology, we've managed to keep pace pretty well."

After signaling the repair crews that they'd need to replace another turret, even as the lieutenant took out another in the third room, Korvin piped up for the first time, "So the nanites provide something besides protection from biological and chemical warfare?"

"Right. We've seen an increase in both strength and stamina since we started using the nano-tech system, with a small measure of improved physical regeneration to boot. And mental acuity has been increased by a small measure as well. We find ourselves able to think faster, absorb more information quicker, and react faster. All things which, for a soldier, are indispensable."

With that, the lieutenant found herself in the fourth room. The mechs this time opened fire on her position almost immediately, and she found herself throwing a barrier up immediately and taking cover. Throwing several more EMP grenades out, she managed to disable the majority of the mechs long enough to throw a singularity and shockwave out, scattering the remaining force. Followed by several shots to the holographic target, she completed the course in a decent time.

After the course had been reset and the defenses inside repaired and rearmed, Jorge entered. Where Lieutenant Smith had moved with an almost acrobatic grace, Lieutenant Maxwell took a different approach. Instead of immediately taking cover as Jennifer had, Jorge simply tossed out two small turrets before boosting his shields and pulling out the light-machine gun he carried. Swiftly taking out the turrets before him, he strode up to the door, simply slapping some form of explosive on the door, blasting it into the second room.

"Had I realized it was a race, maybe I wouldn't have taken cover so much." Jennifer said with a slight smile, sipping some form of energy drink.

Fiora couldn't help smiling at the comment, even as Harra opined, "You showed a degree of finesse which is lacking in your companion there. Though his method is certainly effective."

Marcus chimed in at that point, "I quite enjoy a good show of fireworks, though your biotics were impressive Lieutenant. Jorge there just has to show how our engineering corps gets the job done."

Fiora was forced to admit as the human engineer deployed yet another set of turrets in the third room, finally taking cover as well, that it was an impressive display of force. It was interesting how focused it was however. Despite having a rather disturbing amount of firepower at his disposal, Jorge didn't appear to waste any of it.

Ultimately it didn't take much longer for Jorge to muscle through the third room. And after deploying several turrets and grenades in the fourth room, rather unceremoniously took out the target with his pistol.

Once again the course had to be reset, though it took a little longer due to the damage caused to the structure itself. Next up was the Artificial Intelligence infiltrator, Apollo.

"Twenty creds he makes it through without destroying a single thing." James said to the other humans in the room.

"That's a fools bet James." Marcus said with a smile, "In fact, I better go get ready for my run through, given how fast he'll likely get through this opposition."

Korvin frowned at that, "Why do you think he'll get through without destroying anything?"

Jorge chose to respond, "Because you have a series of Virtual Intelligence mechs and turrets up against an AI. It's no contest. Apollo will spoof their sensors and simply walk right by them, if he doesn't just cloak himself."

And with that pronouncement, the group watched the scene below them unfold. Entering the room quickly, Apollo did indeed simply cloak himself. However, the turrets then proceeded to open fire on each other, even as the door popped open and a shimmer passed through.

The next room erupted into chaos as some of the mechs simply fell down, with others opening fire on their compatriots before an EMP grenade took them all out. Again the door to the third room simply popped open.

"Well now I'm glad no-one took me up on that bet." James said with a wry smile, "Damn show off."

The third and fourth rooms erupted into chaos in much the same way as before. Finally the AI reappeared behind the holographic target, taking it out with a shotgun blast from behind. Setting the fastest time yet for the group of prospectives, and giving the techs responsible for resetting the room the least amount of work yet.

With a smile on his face as he re-entered the room, Apollo did at least look apologetic. "Sorry, I'm sure that strategy wouldn't work against organic foes. But it was fun."

"Show-off," was all Jennifer said before sticking her tongue out at the infiltrator.

"Right, lets see how Marcus tackles this situation." The AI responded simply.

As Marcus entered the corridor leading into the course, Fiora's attention was drawn to the object he held in his right hand. "Is that a staff?"

Peering closer at the display it was Jorge who responded, "Yep, looks like Marcus is that type of vanguard. I think tackle was the right word to use there Apollo."

"Indeed."

And with that, Marcus entered the first room. And immediately disappeared in a biotic flash and bang as he reappeared on top of the first turret, slamming the staff through its control panel. Satisfied he had disabled it, he then flashed towards the second turret, unleashing a nova at its location before cracking its barrel with his staff. Throwing a quick warp at the final turret in the room, he charged once more at the final target, causing a small biotic explosion as the energy fields warped around his impact.

"I take back my claims of you being a show-off Apollo." James and Jennifer said simultaneously, even as Marcus made his way through the door.

The next room saw Marcus charge straight into the middle of the assembled mechs. But instead of unleashing a nova as Fiora had expected, he proceeded to tear through them with the staff. Bouncing around like some sort of hopped up pyjack, it was like watching some form of violent dance. Only after the last mech fell did he stop moving, and only then to compose himself as he strode to the next door.

"I take it he follows some form of martial arts?" Avictus asked.

Shrugging his shoulders, Jorge responded, "Every Alliance soldier learns some form of hand-to-hand combat. I think Marcus follows one of the Asian forms of martial arts, but I can't be sure. I know that some groups of vanguards have revived the European martial arts which used staffs extensively."

"Not all vanguards use a staff then?"

Jennifer responded to that, "No, most use guns to a large degree. Some use swords. They are all focused on close-quarters combat however."

The next two rooms fell quickly to the biotic onslaught. Fiora was intrigued by the shockwave the human vanguard created. Instead of a thin path of biotic energy, he created a sweeping wave with his staff as some sort of focus. This let him take out the mechs in one swift movement before he turned his attention to the turrets. In the end he took out the target with his pistol, the only shots he fired from the weapon in the entire span of time.

"He was part of the diplomatic guard when your species arrived at the Citadel last year?" Badau asked when it was all over, "I'm rather glad we didn't come to blows that day if he was there."

Fiora had to admit a small amount of sympathy for the poor techs who had to replace almost every piece of combat equipment after each run through. And then she remembered why they had saved Captain Traynor for last.

"Just how much damage will James likely be causing?" Fiora found herself asking.

"Well that depends on how he decides to take on this course. If he looks at it like a race, it will probably be minimal. Maybe. If he sees it as a chance to show off, well, Alliance Command may not like the bill you'll be submitting to them." Jorge stated with no small amount of apprehension in his voice.

Korvin grimaced at that. "Well this should be interesting to watch at least."

With a chipper smile, Jennifer replied to that comment, "You'll see how our Drop Troopers enter the fight at least. Kinetically."

All eyes turned to the behemoth making its way towards the course. Fiora had to admit that it was a scary amount of armor, but the strange thing was the pair of jump-jets on its back. She didn't see how they could be useful in close-quarters situation like this.

Of course, as soon as the Captain entered the room she understood how. Engaging the jets on his back, he literally threw himself at the first turret, simply removing it from its position through sheer kinetic force. Landing with a crash, he started opening fire on the other two with his assault rifle, tearing through the two turrets with ease.

He then proceeded to align himself with the door, before once again engaging his jump-jets and crashing through the door and the next line of cover, finally coming to a halt in the middle of the mechs.

"Kinetically. Yes, that is quite apparent." Badau stated with a shocked expression on his face.

Once again he started tearing through the mechs, this time using the shotgun at his disposal. Supplemented with his fists when a mech got too close.

Proceeding into the third room in the same manner, he didn't even stop to engage the forces in it, simply deploying a series of grenades from somewhere on his suit before tearing into the final room. Taking cover, he proceeded to start taking shots with his assault rifle at the turrets in the room, deploying several more grenades to thin the mechs that had begun advancing on his position.

Finally sensing an opening, he glided into the center of the room with his thrusters before taking out the target for the final time. Leaving behind him a large amount of debris and smoldering wreckage.

"Well at least the walls are still standing." Jorge stated simply.

Fiora could only shake her head, as the techs once more entered the room, this time with fire-fighting gear.

"I think we've seen enough here, lets all make our way back to the meeting room where we can discuss who will be assigned whom." Avictus stated simply after eying the mechanical carnage.

* * *

"I'm sure you're all excited to get out into the field. But before we do so, you'll have to be assigned an observer." Avictus began once they had reconvened.

"Marcus, Fiora will be your observer. She's a vanguard as well, so she'll be able to keep pace with you in combat. Besides, it will be interesting to see how your biotics interact with one another."

Both nodded at him before glancing at one another. Marcus flashing a brief smile.

"For similar reasons, Harra will be your observer Jennifer. Harra is a former huntress, so you should be able to pick up some interesting biotic skills. And I'm sure you'll be able to teach her a fair bit of the new gear that will be hitting the rest of the galaxy shortly."

Giving a quick smile and extending one of her digits up in his direction, Jennifer quickly made her way over to the asari.

"Because of your shared technical expertise, Korvin will be working with you Jorge. I'm sure you'll be able to bring him up to speed on the pros and cons of your equipment. And I'm sure he'll be able to push your destructive capabilities to their limits. When necessary."

Sharing a chuckle, the two figures turned to one another and entered into quiet discussion.

"Apollo, given your rather unique perspective amongst those of us assembled here, Badau will be your observer. He tends to take the more technical or sensitive missions, so I feel you'll be a good fit with him."

Simply nodding their heads, the two figures began typing into their omni-tools. Or at least Badau was, Apollo was probably simply providing a holographic display of such activity.

"Which leaves you to me Captain Traynor. I'm sure I'll be able to find some use for your talents. But we'll save that discussion for later, right now we have a ship to catch."

Standing up, the armored human followed Avictus out of the room. "So where we headed boss?"

"Illium." Glancing at his omni-tool, Avictus made some mental calculations. "You've got an hour to grab your stuff and meet me at dock D-35. We're meeting an acquaintance of mine who has some information we may find useful for our first mission."

"An acquaintance huh? Some kind of merc or something?"

Nodding, Avictus continued, "Yes. He's a krogan, but he's one of the best krogan mercs there is. Smart sort, we've formed some form of mutual respect in our run-ins."

"Well then, I can't wait to meet the fellow. And the chance to explore a world full of asari. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll head off to grab my gear."

"Of course." Turning to face the human, Avictus extended his hand to the hulking man, "And let me extend my personal congratulations. I look forward to working together with you."


	9. Chapter 9: Paint the Town Blue?

**Author's Notes: **

**Sorry once again for the length of time between updates here. I wanted to originally get this up before the New Year, but the holidays interfered with that. Followed by my reworking the sections I had already written, followed by a death in the family, kind of put this off.**

**Everything's relatively fine at this point, so no worries there. As such, here is the next chapter (along with an updated summary) which will move the plot along somewhat. Finally we're one chapter out from the historical chapter I promised, which will cover 3 events.**

**Also, the characters I introduced last chapter will make appearances here and there, but they are mostly in place in case I need someone for something. With humans living 300 years due to nanotech, I can count on them being alive for the future (barring death by Spectre stuff). Probably not the salarian and turian Spectres though.  
**

**I don't own Mass Effect, Bioware does and I thank them for creating the universe.**

* * *

_April 5th, 2087  
Nos Astra, Illium_

"So where are we meeting this contact of yours?" James asked as the pair made their way through the port.

"A local bar." Avictus said while a group of asari split to let them through. "He has an apartment on Illium. Probably because of its role as a port of entry between Citadel Space and the Terminus systems."

"Well given he's a krogan, I doubt its because he appreciates the view." James stated simply as even more asari began to ogle the only human in the port.

"Is that a comment on the scenery or the locals?" Avictus had noticed that while the Republics and Alliance relations were somewhat tense, most humans got along rather well with individual asari.

"A bit of both I suppose." James stated simply as he gave a small bow to a pair of asari who stood aside. "Though I have to say, I could find myself retiring here if I ever get the chance."

Rolling his eyes, Avictus couldn't help but feel a little exasperated. During the three day trip the two had talked a fair bit about missions and tactics. They had even discussed the relations different species had with one another. But so much for professionalism when something or someone 'pretty' wandered in front of him.

"So what's this fellow's name anyways?" James finally asked as they reached the bar entrance.

"Urdnot Wrex." Avictus replied with a sigh. He even managed to get a few steps further before he noticed that James had stopped cold in his tracks.

"Urdnot Wrex? You're joking with me boss."

Turning to face James, Avictus put a questioning expression on his face. "You've heard of him?"

"Well, he's been in pretty much every conflict since the Rebellions. Can't open a history book without finding him."

That response came a little too quick. And while it wasn't inaccurate, it was a bit embellished. The fact that James knew who he was referring to however did raise some questions though.

"Yes. Well let me do the talking. He tends not to trust people, unless he's been in a good fight with them. And I'd rather not have to pay for the damages you two could probably create in a fight."

"Woah, I'm not going to pick a fight with a krogan." James said with a smile, "I may like a good fight now and then, but fighting a krogan? That's just asking for a headache and a half."

"Good. Now lets not keep him waiting any longer than necessary."

It didn't take long to find him. The other patrons were wisely giving the massive figure a wide berth. And judging by the glasses in front of him, he'd been here at least a little while.

"Wrex. Good to see you again."

"Avictus." the large krogran growled. "Who's the pyjak? He one of those humans I've heard so much about?"

"James Traynor." Extending an armored hand, he continued, "Avictus here is letting me tag along on a mission or two. See the sights of the galaxy and all that."

Eying the human warily, Wrex grabbed the offered hand and shook it once, "So what you're saying is that the new kids on the block are getting their own Spectres."

"I suppose that's the long and short of it." Glancing at Avictus, James continued quickly. "Though I think our mutual pal here would like to get to the heart of the meeting."

"Right, you had information on that Eclipse group I asked you about Wrex?" Avictus asked with a scowl on his face.

"Hmmph, bunch of dolled up rich girls playing soldier if you ask me." Wrex said with a grunt, "Yeah I've got the information you wanted. But I'm sure you know you don't get it before I get paid."

Typing a few commands in his omni-tool, Avictus quickly cleared the credit transfer. Almost immediately Wrex's omni lit up with confirmation that the transfer had occurred.

"Ok, so you wanted to know where they got to. I can't tell you that precisely, but I can tell you who knows that information." Pausing briefly to input the right commands, Wrex continued, "Erisa Hajask. She's the information and money broker for the band of Eclipse who hit that supply ship. Lives a couple minutes away if you take a cab. Your omni-tool can tell you the rest."

"Thanks Wrex, we'll leave you to your drink." Turning to James, Avictus motioned for them both to leave.

Once outside the two located a cab and punched in their destination. And while Avictus was prepared to discuss how to approach the forthcoming situation, James apparently had a different idea of what would be a constructive use of their time.

"So how'd you manage to pay Wrex? I mean, no one actually covered whether Spectres are paid or not."

"And of all the times to ask that question, now seemed to be most appropriate?" Avictus asked with an amazed tone. Humans definitely had a different sense of priorities it seemed.

"Well, we won't really know the lay of the land until we get there. So yeah, how do we get paid?"

"I suppose you do have a point. As for where I got the funds to pay Wrex, the Council does provide a decent remuneration for our services. Though all Spectres tend to supplement their income in various ways."

Snorting, James gave a chuckle, "How? Rifling through pockets and searching through crates?"

That earned a glare from Avictus, "Badau might engage in that behavior from time to time. Though he also draws a paycheck from the STG still. No, I actually own stock in a couple of weapons manufacturers and have my own bodyguard service. Fiora operates an advanced biotics school she provides lessons at when she has the time. It depends on the interests of the individual Spectre really."

"Huh. I guess I better start taking a deeper look at my own maple syrup farm plans."

"Maple syrup?" Based on the fact it came from a farm, Avictus assumed it was something you ate. But some things didn't always translate well.

"Yeah, it's basically sugar that you pour on things. Makes 'em taste sweeter." James licked his lips at that, "It comes from a couple species of trees on the North American continent where I'm from. Though, a lot further north, and considerably colder. We've only managed to find four other planets that are able to grow the trees that it comes from. The synthesized stuff just doesn't taste the same, so the price has pretty much skyrocketed."

"So it's like jrask then? It's a spice from one of Palaven's deserts."

"Sure."

"Huh. To each his own I guess." Avictus settled back in his seat as the cab raced towards their destination. He had already begun thinking up several ideas on how they were to actually go about the next step in their mission.

"So any ideas on how to go about securing this information broker? Good cop, bad cop routine? Guns a blazing?" James said with an inquisitive tone.

Ignoring the obvious jokes Avictus began explaining, "Considering she's a biotic, surprise will be important. Though given that I'm supposed to be observing you, how about you come up with something?"

"Sure thing boss," Glancing out the window as the cab began maneuvering itself towards a landing pad, James began eying the terrain. "Depending on which building she is in precisely, I'll have a better idea of how to approach the situation."

"Building 525, she's on the 2nd floor above the landing pad."

"Right then. Here's what I figure, she's probably expecting a turian to come asking about a hit on one of their transport ships. So if you go in, she'll probably try to make a break for her vehicle. So here's what I'm thinking, you go in alone." Glancing at the skeptical look on Avictus' face as the cab began settling down, James continued, "You'll flush her out, and with her attention focused on you, I'll be able to get the drop on her. Of course she might not even run, in which case I hope you'll call me up to join the chat."

"I can't say I'm particularly excited about the plan. But it should work." Exiting the cab, Avictus made his way towards the office complex entrance.

* * *

Erisa was having a bad day. No, that wasn't a period of time long enough to describe her misery. For the past two weeks, since those idiots had attacked that turian supply convoy, Erisa had been worried sick. First Eclipse leadership had railed at her, asking why the band she supplied information and money to had been so stupid. Then she'd gotten reports that the turians were investigating the matter. Given what those ship had carried, it was no wonder the turians were furious.

Fortunately it appeared as though the Hierarchy hadn't uncovered who it was precisely that had attacked their convoy. But dammit, those idiots shouldn't have even gone after that convoy in the first place! She could have procured those weapons with no problems at all from one of the legitimate dealers who had set himself up on Illium in the past month! But no, Larsa had been gung-ho on acquiring that tech without any channels tracing it back to them.

Which was stupid! Erisa could channel the funds through nearly two dozen shell accounts, and Illium law made it so difficult to trace purchases if the buyer didn't want to be found that you would have to be an asari just to see the first hearing! Goddess, those dense idiots might bring the might of the galaxy down on Eclipse just because they wanted to steal something!

Erisa found her mental ranting brought to a halt as the door to her office opened. And found herself cursing Larsa's newly found ineptitude as a turian walked through the door. But it was just one turian, which was good! He might just be trying to sell some information.

"Miss Hajask? I'm Avictus Aurensus. I'd like to ask you a couple of questions."

Crap. Suddenly she understood why there was a single turian. If he wasn't from one of the innumerable elite turian units, then he was probably a Spectre. Which was definitely not good news. She could stay and just give him what he wanted, it might not even be related to Larsa's band. But just from the look on his face she could surmise that wasn't the case.

"I'm sorry, but I'm in the habit of selling information, not simply giving it away. So unless you're willing to pay, you can politely remove yourself from my office."

"Miss Hajask, this is Council business. Which you are suspected of being involved in. So unless you start answering my questions, this is only going to get worse for you."

Dammit, he was a Spectre. But she wasn't sensing any biotics energy coming off of him, so she might be able to at least get to her aircar. From there she could get to an Eclipse safehouse and plot her next move. But first she had to get past him.

"Of course. Come in then." Just get a little closer so that I can get away from you.

Erisa had to resist the urge to prep her biotics for what she was about to do. If he was a Spectre he'd probably be able to notice if she were to do so. This was so stupid, but it might be her only chance to get away.

Just as he reached her table she unleashed a biotic throw at him, arcing it so he would be pushed away from her path. Fortunately, despite his attempt to dive out of the way and despite the relative weakness of her attack, it managed to connect and send him flying.

She had already started jumping over her desk when she had launched that throw, and soon found herself crossing over the threshold of her office. Turning back, she saw the damn turian getting up already, so she tossed another throw at him. Hopefully the fact she wasn't throwing lethal attacks at him would mean something if he caught up to her.

Launching herself off the balcony overlooking the entrance, Erisa used her biotics to slow her descent. Once she felt the ground beneath her feet, she took off running for the entrance. Looking back she saw the turian at the point where she had jumped off. Strange though, he was just standing there with something close to a smile on his face.

She had barely taken one step out the door when she ran into something. Whatever it was, it caused her to bounce back almost a meter from the door. Before she could move, she found herself being hoisted up with some sort of restraint being slapped onto her wrists soon afterward.

"Going somewhere darling? I think my friend and I would like to talk to you first."

Well at least the wall she ran into had some manners it seemed. Looking up at it, she was surprised to see one of those humans. Apparently they were getting their own Spectres now. Joy.

"Okay then, how about we have this discussion back in my office?" She gave a slight grin through the pounding headache she had developed. "I guess I shouldn't have run then, huh?"

"Not the brightest plan, no." The human stated simply. And then he proceeded to lift her up onto his shoulder and carry her up the stairs.

* * *

"Thank you for not actually trying to kill me Miss Hajask. Though your attempt to run does make me feel that I'll have to corroborate what you say." Avictus said while rubbing his neck.

James had bodily carried the young asari back up the stairs in a rather humorous manner. And after dealing with the office complex security, who were not happy to have a Spectre on site, they had entered the office. Once there Avictus had promptly overridden the door controls, while James had placed the information broker into one of the chairs spread throughout the room.

"I doubt I could actually kill you Spectre. As for my cooperation, Eclipse probably won't shoot me if we're about to discuss the attack on that Hierarchy convoy two weeks ago. So you don't have to worry about me holding back there."

"And why is that the case?" Narrowing his eyes, Avictus pressed forward with his questions. James seemed to be enjoying the show if his leaning against the wall was any indication.

"Because Larsa, the leader of that particular band, did it against Eclipse leadership's express orders. And because she ignored the much safer ways I offered to get the tech for her. Goddess, there are already two human arms dealers on Illium who would be more than willing to sell weapons to anyone who asks for them." That was unusual. While Eclipse wasn't necessarily legitimate, they did tend to avoid causing too much trouble for themselves.

James spoke up from across the room, "So why did they decide to be stupid and attack a turian convoy?"

"I don't know!" Erisa exclaimed, turning to look at the large human. "They're not even supposed to be a combat branch. Until two years ago, they had basically just gone around the frontiers looking for base locations and mineral deposits."

That appeared to grab James' attention, as he suddenly pushed off the wall and strode forward. "And what happened two years ago?"

"I'm not sure. They found some artifact or something on an uncharted world and decided to build a base there. I'm the only one who knows where the base is located, up until now our leadership didn't really care about it."

"What type of artifact? Prothean?" Avictus asked. Looking over at James, he noticed there was an odd look on his face.

"No. It's older, much older. That much was clear."

Before he could continue to press the asari, James interrupted forcefully. "Describe it."

"I don't know what it looks like!" Scrunching her face up, the asari focused her thoughts for a moment before continuing, "From what I gathered, it looks organic almost. And purple. A deep purple."

That got a reaction from James, and it wasn't a pleasant one. "Jesus Christ. Have any of the members of this band brought anything back from their base site or been transferred out of that group? Quickly!" He was practically shouting at this point.

That terrified her, and alarmed Avictus. If that description unnerved someone who dropped from orbit in a small pod into the center of a battlefield, how dangerous was it?

"Uhhhh, let me think for a second." Once more she paused, though the large human aggressively tapping his arms in front of her obviously was upsetting her train of thought. "No. No one has been transferred to any other group. And they haven't brought anything back from the site as far as I know. Actually, that's another reason our leadership was getting annoyed with Larsa."

"Though one of the new girls did visit the hospital on her last trip back here. She was complaining about voices in her head." She continued after a moment.

That last revelation was apparently the nail in the coffin for whatever train of thought James had going. "We need the coordinates to that base immediately!"

Ignoring the now sputtering asari, James turned on his omnitool and opened up a communications channel. "Alliance High Command, this is Captain James Traynor. I have a Code Black-Beta situation. Repeat, Code Black-Beta. Requesting orbital support to handle the situation, with rendezvous in Illium space for transport to the target location."

Avictus wasn't expecting an immediate response, so when the dispatcher responded he couldn't keep the surprise off his face. "Captain, 2nd Fleet is dispatching the _Harbinger of Songs_ to Illium space via wormhole transit immediately. ETA to Illium is estimated to be one hour, twenty minutes at these coordinates. Good luck Captain. Alliance Command out."

"Well, the coordinates?" The Alliance soldier turned and glared at Erisa.

"Uh, I kind of need these shackles taken off of me to use my computer." She responded meekly.

Undoing the shackles, James turned to Avictus as Erisa moved over to her computer. "Can you secure us transport to orbit?"

"Of course. Though I would like an explanation with regards to why this is bigger than a simple attack on a supply convoy."

"When we're on board the _Harbinger_." James glanced over at the asari, indicating that it wasn't something he wanted to discuss in front of her.

At that moment Erisa found the coordinates, "Here you are. I'll transfer them to your omni-tool. I, uh, don't suppose you'll be leaving my office now?"

Both of the Council agents turned to look at her. James was the one to answer her. "Of course. I'll see to it that the Alliance reimburses you for the information you provided. Also, we'd appreciate it if you did not let anyone know we were going to be arriving."

"Of course!" She said a little too quickly, "I don't think my superiors will mind given how Larsa's group has royally messed up! Just, please leave now."

At that she collapsed into her desk chair. Overriding the door controls once more, Avictus and James strode out. And Avictus was now unusually concerned about what exactly their mission had turned into.

* * *

_April 5th, 2087  
En-route to AEC-2085_

At least the human ships were fast Avictus thought to himself. He'd managed to both secure transport and some supplies for himself given his dextro status on a levo ship. Though he still hadn't found out why a crusier had been diverted on what was previously a simple mission in the hour he had been aboard.

And then the shipboard AI popped up. "Greetings Spectre Aurensus. I'm sorry for Captain Traynor's delay, he has been informing Captain Alexopoulos of the situation and likely composition of Eclipse forces we will be facing. My name is Janus by the way, a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise, though I would like to know why your Alliance decided to dedicate a cruiser for this mission?" Avictus asked a little testily.

At least the AI squirmed a little at the question, "Ah. I suspect that Captain Traynor would like to give you that explanation. He will be here momentarily however."

At that, the human Spectre candidate entered the room, alongside one of the shipboard marine sergeants. Before he could even ask a question, the sergeant fiddled with some sort of program on his omni-tool for a few seconds before it gave a clear chime.

"He's clear Captain."

"Good," James replied somberly, "Sorry about the wait Avictus. I had to clear some things with the higher ups, but we have a plan of action now."

"What does he mean when he says 'I'm clear'?" Avictus was scowling at this point.

"That... is a long explanation. But that's what we're going to clear up. Do you remember what Apollo said the other day about the possibility of other civilizations existing before the protheans?"

Avictus nodded, "I seem to recall a quick answer before Captain Cole changed the subject."

"Well that answer was a lie. There have been tens of thousands of civilizations that predate the protheans." That was not the answer Avictus expected. But now his curiosity was piqued.

"And what does this have to do with the artifact Eclipse discovered?"

"Absolutely everything. You see the creators of the artifact also created the Relays and the Citadel. Hell, their progenitors were the ones who initially discovered the possibilities that element-zero allows." Pausing momentarily, James dropped another bombshell. "They are also the ones responsible for the cyclical destruction of galactic civilization."

That was certainly a bold claim, "You have evidence for this claim? I find it hard to believe that the same species that created the Relays would proceed to destroy everyone that used them. Or that they are still around after millions of years."

"Humanity has uncovered clear evidence that at least 5 civilizations existed in our region of space at varying space in the past. And surely you've heard of other long dead ruins scattered throughout the galaxy?" James paused waiting for an answer. Avictus had heard of several ancient ruins predating the protheans, but the idea that they had been systematically wiped out was preposterous.

"Let us say that I have heard of such ruins. Why would the creators of the relays destroy everyone who followed them?"

"Because they believe that synthetic life, like myself, is a threat to all organic life." Janus spoke up once more. "Or at least, that's what we believe. We aren't working off much of lead on this point."

James spoke up again, "Though they don't completely destroy us. They take us, melt us down, and turn us into another Reaper. All in an effort to 'preserve' us."

"Reaper. That's your term for these beings?" This was almost unbelievable. But at the same time it explained a number of unsettling things. Like what had happened to the protheans themselves.

"No, that was the protheans' term for them. They never even learned why they were being culled. All they knew was that they were being destroyed by these almost unstoppable juggernauts."

"So how do you know all this then?"

James looked up at the ceiling for a moment before shrugging, "We don't actually know. Our understanding of wormhole theory precludes changing the universe. And things have deviated from our... source of information. Like when we discovered the Mars ruins and our technological capabilities. But so many other events have been accurate, specifically those that we could not interfere with, that we've accepted the source as true enough."

Avictus frowned at that. It wasn't a particularly good answer. But the possibility of these Reapers existing did explain the extent to which humanity had armed itself, beyond the levels needed to protect themselves from the other races of the galaxy.

"Wait. You said they melted individuals down to turn them into more Reapers. How is that possible and why would they do such a thing?"

"We're not sure about how they do it. Probably some form a disassembler nanomachine. But as for why, a Reaper is a star ship. A gestalt of representatives of the constituent species. We think there are two classes, a two kilometer long dreadnaught and a couple hundred meters long destroyer. We're not sure of the genetic requirements that determine whether a species becomes one or the other though."

"So these Reapers are incredibly powerful is what you're saying." That was not an answer he had been expecting. Even if they utilized element-zero technology exclusively, the fact that they created the Relays marked them as being extremely advanced.

"Yeah, they are powerful. But the real strength they possess is in their ability to subvert individuals to their cause." James jerked a thumb towards the sergeant standing in the corner of the room, "We call it indoctrination, and its what Rajesh scanned you for when we entered the room. Basically, they have the ability to control you; your thoughts, actions, and even your memories. To humanity, it's the most dangerous weapon in their arsenal."

"I understand now why your government dispatched a cruiser to deal with this situation. Does this indoctrination have any range limits or treatment options available?"

At that question, James frowned. "We're not sure about a lot of the specifics of indoctrination. Mostly because we can't study it without risking becoming indoctrinated. And because indoctrination may allow the Reapers access to an individual's memories, its something we can't risk, especially since every human knowing of their existence." James shrugged before continuing. "We are reasonably certain that the Citadel itself does not possess the capability to indoctrinate individuals, mostly because of its nature as the centerpiece of the Reaper trap. They didn't want it to become a target seeing as how it's the backdoor into the galaxy."

James noticed the odd look on Avictus' face after that comment and continued the explanation, "See, the Citadel itself is also a relay. We're not sure where it leads to, somewhere in the depths of space outside of the galaxy we think. Fortunately, the protheans disabled that particular function, so they can't remotely access it and usher in the apocalypse."

"So I take it that the possibility of these Reapers coming back is the reason for your species' level of military development then. What should we expect when we hit this base then?"

James grimaced for a moment, "Hopefully we'll just encounter indoctrinated Eclipse agents. Indoctrination is supposed to weaken an individual's mental faculties depending on how far along it has gone. Given the description we got of this band's actions, it might be a fair ways along."

"But we could be unlucky. If they've been enhancing their selves with Reaper tech, it's possible that one or more of them could have been turned into husks. A sort of bio-mechanical monstrosity. The asari version is particularly nasty; capable of short-range biotic hops, powerful warp fields, and biotic novas. Best advice if we encounter one of 'em, keep moving."

Locking eyes with his turian counterpart, James continued, "Also, if you come into contact with the artifact or get hit by a pulse or anything from it, I put a shot into your skull. The same goes for me and everyone else who goes down there. If we all become compromised, _Harbinger_ has orders to launch an orbital strike on the facility with us inside it." Pausing, James chuckled darkly, "Though given the nature of the artifact we're after, that's the endgame no matter what. Hopefully we'll be able to steer clear of it."

Avictus couldn't say he was thrilled at the prospect of having a round passing through his skull. But given the sheer panic that the Alliance showed at the possibility of this being connected to these Reapers, he couldn't blame them for the precautions they were taking. And he had to admit, the thought of being controlled like this band of Eclipse possibly were was unsettling.

"You do realize that I'll have to inform the rest of the Council of this information of course? Despite the somewhat sparse nature of how you know all this, they will have to come together and discuss how to proceed."

"Yeah, we realized as much. Publius has already been informed of the Code Black scenario and will be informing the rest of the Council in more detail after we complete this mission." Grimacing James paused for a moment before continuing, "Hopefully he'll be able to convince them to hold that meeting off the Citadel."

"If the Citadel really is a Reaper construct, then I sure hope that's the case. How long until we reach the target location?"

"About 14 hours. Which gives us enough time to figure out how we're going to tackle a base full of mentally unstable asari commandos."

* * *

_Codex Entry:  
Alliance Planetary Classifications_

_ While all species colonize worlds which are capable of supporting life, the Alliance differs in its method of classifying the colonies it has already established. While other species classify their colonies on the basis of economic development, the Alliance focuses on the defensive capabilities a colony possesses. This is not to say that the Alliance is unconcerned with economic development, simply that it does not factor into government planning._

_ The first level is the **Frontier World** level. Colonies at this level have only been recently established, and thus rely on Alliance Navy detachments for orbital defense. On the surface, defenses and towns are based around armories where much of the militia's weaponry is stored. The primary means of defense at this level is from the planetary militia, made up of the adult population, supplemented by small numbers of marines._

_ The second level is classified as a **Standard World**. At this stage, orbital defenses consist of both orbital gun emplacements mixed with local naval detachments. Surface defenses include both the militia, still supported by local armories, and permanent planetary defense forces. Cities and towns have local shelters which are protected by automated defenses and shield generators._

_ The third level of classification is **Core World **status. Orbital defenses at this level have advanced to include manned defense stations and hangars accompanied by unmanned gun emplacements. At this stage a planet has developed its own local defense fleet and does not rely on naval resources to protect its space. Planetary defense forces are large and well equipped, now supplemented by militia forces rather than the reverse. Cities and towns have developed staggered defense lines centered around armory locations and are protected by powerful defense shields._

_ The final level of classification consists of **Fortress Worlds**. At this stage, orbital defenses are extensive, with all approaches to a planet covered by staggered defense shells. While a planet at this level has extensive local defense fleets, naval assets are often devoted to their defense as well. Surface defenses are extensive as well, with all cities protected by shields and military bases. Twelve worlds are confirmed to have this status, foremost among them: Earth, Chiron, Haven, and Altera. Rumors exist of a thirteenth world with this status, but those rumors are unsubstantiated at this time._

* * *

**Author's Note: **

**Originally I was going to have Apollo and Badau encounter the merc base with a Reaper artifact in it, but this chapter evolved to cover this plot point so it was moved forward. And I know I didn't cover everything about the Reapers, but the dialogue feels particularly stilted there.  
**

**So the next chapter will cover the attack on the Eclipse base and the Council discussion. I know I'm kind of ruining the surprise there, but what else would I cover? Also I forget, is Eclipse the merc band that has salarians in it as well?  
**

** Also, I hope this codex covers somewhat why humanity isn't particularly concerned about the other powers gaining access to hyperdrive. Most colonies are well protected, so its too much hassle and cost to attack a comparatively sized human world relative to another power's world. It typically takes 2-5 years for a colony to move from Frontier to Standard status, dependent on economic factors and immigration, and the surface defenses are the first things set up alongside housing. Haven was special due to its resources and the presence of a Relay leading to another galactic power in the system.  
**


End file.
